Bolt Hole
by artigiano
Summary: When an old enemy surfaces and McGarrett flees, it's up to Danny to try to bring him back before his partner is gone forever.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N 1: SO. It's finally here. There is quite the story behind this tale. This is the story that I've been promising for ages and writing for even longer. It was inspired by an episode of _Criminal Minds_ that aired almost a year ago about a Navy SEAL that went a little crazy and killed some people. Fear not, though, that's not what this story is about. But there was a line from the wife of the SEAL about his "bolt hole" and then this story was born. I've been slowly writing it pretty much all year because school and life and everything else kept getting in the way. But with summer finally rolling around, I got to finish it and edit it (mostly) and now publish it!**

**A/N 2: This was written before Steve took off for Japan without telling anyone where he was going in season two, so just ignore the whole similar leaving-thing. ALSO because this was started waaayyyy early in the season, I just ignored everything that happened in the season finale. So just keep in mind that when reading this. Other than that, enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I have any rights to _Hawaii Five-0. _This is done purely for my own enjoyment, and hopefully yours. **

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If you were to ask him later, Danny would have been able to tell you the exact moment it happened, the exact moment everything changed. Steve and he were in the Camaro, driving back to headquarters after interviewing a suspect when Steve's cell phone rang. Without even looking at the screen to see who it was, his partner answered it on speakerphone. "McGarrett."

"Shit, man, it's good to hear your voice. I've been calling for hours. I—"

That was all Danny heard because as soon as the other voice came on, Steve immediately grabbed the phone and removed it from the speaker function. That alone made Danny suspicious, but one look at Steve's face completely did him in. Suspicion, confusion, and surprise were all written there, along with what Danny could only say was fear. But that made no sense because he'd only seen McGarrett truly scared a small number of times.

"Right." Steve was saying, nodding into the phone his agreement. "No, I totally understand. Thanks for the heads-up." Danny could hear the mumble of the other man's voice for a few more seconds before Steve said, "I'll check in later," and hung up.

Danny gave his partner a moment to put his phone away before letting the questions roll off his tongue. "Who was that? What's going on? Are you getting called up?"

He watched as Steve turned to face him to answer his questions, and he was completely taken aback by Steve's expression—or rather, the lack thereof. His partner's face was totally black, a mask that gave away nothing. It was a mask he hadn't seen in ages, and it made his guy clench with worry. Before he could say anything about it, though, Steve addressed his earlier questions. "No, Danny, I'm not getting called up. That was just an old friend. We, uh, were supposed to meet up because he's here right now, and I accidentally blew him off for the case."

"But you said 'thanks for the heads-up.' Why would you say that if it was just a skipped lunch?"

"Geez, you're such a mother hen, Williams. He was just telling me that he'd left a bunch of messages on my home phone. You need to relax a bit."

All of Steve's responses fit with what Danny had heard, and yet he still couldn't shake that worry, and his partner's face was still carefully schooled. "So you're not getting called up for something? You're not leaving?"

"Stop worrying, Danny. I'm not getting called up for anything."

"Okay," he replied, only realizing later that Steve had completely neglected to answer his second question. But, unfortunately, he didn't even think about it until it was too late.

They continued the drive in silence, leaving Danny to his own thoughts. Inevitably as they always did lately, they turned toward the situation with his ex-wife and daughter. He had taken some time to adjust to the idea of being a father again, but once he had, he was incredibly excited. Now he had had to readjust everything again, and while Grace was more than enough for him, he still felt a little hole in his heart where he had made room for the baby that wasn't his. Helping to deliver the baby hadn't helped necessarily, and his emotions had been on a bit of a roller coaster lately. He was glad it was the weekend so that he could see his daughter, which always made his mood just that much better. He sighed and then all of a sudden refocused on his surroundings, realizing that Steve had asked him a question. "Huh?"

"Real nice listening skills, Danno." Steve replied. "I asked if you would be okay dropping me off at my house before going back. It's almost quitting time and my friend's free now, so…"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Danny nodded, not even recognizing the bizarre request coming from a man who never left work early, never left work before everyone else. But as soon as Danny consented, Steve immediately started driving towards his own house instead of the Palace. When they finally reached the McGarrett home, Steve jumped out of the car quickly, almost running to the front door before Danny had even undone his seatbelt. "You're sure eager to get rid of me," he teased.

Steve laughed, but Danny detected a hint of unease behind it. He could tell something was going on—something about that call had spooked the SEAL—but he wasn't sure what, and with Steve's wall making a grand reappearance, he wouldn't get an answer from the man. "Nope, just got things to do_._ I'll, uh…I'll see you around, Danny. You be careful, alright?"

"Careful?" Danny just looked at his partner, bewildered. "What the hell are you talking about? I'll see you on Monday and I'll probably talk to you at some point this weekend, and yet you're acting like this is goodbye. Which it isn't, right? Because you said—"

"I'm not getting called up. I promise I'm not, Danny. I just—never mind. I'll see you later, okay?"

Danny nodded, but the worry in his gut was resurging. "Okay. See you, then." He walked around and got in the driver's side, watching McGarrett walk into his home.

His partner had almost disappeared into the house when Danny rolled down the window and yelled, "You're sure everything is all right? You seem…off."

He got a smile in response, but everything in Steve's face just seemed wrong and forced. Danny wanted to call him out on it, but before he could, McGarrett just said, "I really am fine, Danny. I'll see you around." Then he closed the door with a dreadful sense of finality; Danny couldn't help but frown at the situation.

Nevertheless, he drove away and went back to the Palace briefly before going back to his apartment. He spent the night playing games with his daughter and giving Steve space in the hope that the next time he saw his partner the wall would be gone. He decided before he went to bed that he would let Steve call him instead of bugging the SEAL and making whatever was wrong worse.

Danny started to regret that decision by Sunday afternoon, though, when he had yet to hear from Steve. He felt slightly reminiscent of the time after the Hesse-debacle with Chin Ho when his partner had gone incognito for the weekend, but nothing had happened that he knew of for Steve to be avoiding him or wallowing in moodiness. Instead of going to check on Steve like he had in the past, he just rode out of the worry and settled on seeing—and interrogating—Steve on Monday.

But Monday morning brought no answers.

As soon as Danny opened the office doors, Kono immediately ambushed him. "Is McGarrett with you?"

"No…Why?"

"Well, it's…" She checked her watch. "It's 9:30 and the boss is usually here by 7:00, 7:30 at the latest, unless he's with you. But he's not here and he's not with you, so where is he?"

"Have you tried calling him? Maybe he just overslept." But even as he said it, Danny knew that, somehow, that wouldn't be the case.

"Not yet," Chin said calmly. "We were waiting to see if he was with you. Did he say that he was going to be running late today?"

"I wouldn't know—we haven't spoken since Friday."

The cousins shared a look. "I feel like Christmas all over again," Kono remarked. "I'm probably over-reacting. He could just be having car trouble, but—"

"But it's McGarrett. He attracts trouble like nothing else. Let's call and give it another twenty minutes before we start worrying…more." Chin concluded. Danny just wanted to rush out and find Steve, but he could see the logic in the older man's plan, so he nodded his consent.

Half hour later, there was still no sign of his partner, no answers to either home or cell phone, and Danny was on his feet, grabbing his keys and racing towards the car. It took only thirty seconds before Kono and Chin were coming after him. At his look, Chin just said, "He may be your partner, but he's our friend too." That was enough for Danny, and the trip to Steve's house was over before he could even blink.

He took into account a few things as soon as they pulled in. Steve's blue truck wasn't in the driveway, and the house looked completely empty. No lights were on, no movement could be seen in the windows, and there just a pervasive air of stillness. The final thing his detective's eye noticed was the curtains of the house were drawn everywhere—something that Steve had never done before. All of it screamed that McGarrett wasn't here.

The three of them approached the house quietly, all reaching for their guns at the exact same time. Danny made it to the door first and was surprised that not only was it unlocked, but the alarm wasn't on either. The three of them spread out throughout the downstairs and mat at the base of the staircase when all the rooms had been swept. "It's all clear," Danny whispered. "Let's move up."

Once more, Danny took the lead and they moved up the stairs, again finding every room empty after regrouping. Somberly, Chin stated what they were all thinking. "He's not here, and it doesn't look like he's been for a while. There's no coffee in the machine, and it's cold. There's nothing in the sink, the fridge is empty, and there's nothing in the trashcan. I don't think he's been here all weekend."

"Shit," Danny cursed, running a hand through his hair. "Where could he—wait!" He stopped and took off down the stairs towards the garage, the others following after him. He tore past the car that Steve was still restoring and to what he had only seen once before. He pulled open what looked like a filing cabinet, but what was actually the outer façade of Steve's gun locker. He knew McGarrett definitely had more hiding places, but he knew about this one because Steve had installed it for Grace, so that Danny would know where the weapons were so his daughter wouldn't find them. Even though Grace knew not to play with the weapons because of Danny, he still didn't want guns just laying around in his daughter's presence. It had touched him and proved how strong their friendship had become when Steve had done this. Usually the safe was locked, but it swung open to his touch, and the inside was barren. "He cleaned it out. He kept some of his weapons in here, and one of them was his dad's—he never took it out, but it's gone. They're all gone. Why would they be gone?"

"I think _he's_ gone, Danny," Kono said, her voice laced with concern. "Let's search the house, maybe see if we can find anything."

Danny immediately wanted to protest, wanted to say that his partner wouldn't have just left them—left him—without a word or a goodbye. He wasn't ready to accept what Kono was saying, and the stubborn part of him thought that maybe Steve could be on the way to the office, that they had just missed him. He wanted to say something, but didn't want to deal with the twin looks of pity from the cousins if (_when_ his mind supplied unhelpfully) he was wrong. "I'll…uh…go through his room. I'll see if I can find some clues."

"It feels weird to be going through the Boss's stuff," Kono remarked quietly.

"But if he's in trouble, we need to figure it out, and this may be the only way. I think he'll forgive us if it means helping him," Chin replied.

Danny nodded and then turned and walked back into the house. He trudged up the stairs and tried to shake off the feeling of uneasiness that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in his bones. He quickly observed the room and noticed that everything looked exactly the same as it did when he had watched Steve after a concussion two weeks ago. But after a closer look, he saw that Steve's personal things—pictures of his family, a drawing that Grace had given him, and a photo of the team and Grace—were all missing. He looked into the closet and found that some of Steve's clothes were not hanging in their usual place. In fact, the closet seemed much emptier than normal.

Walking into the adjoining bathroom, Danny once again noted the emptiness of his partner's presence. He flicked through the medicine cabinet, but didn't find a glaring clue to Steve's location—not that he really expected anything here. _It's not as though Mr. Secretive would leave me a message_ he thought grimly, and then jolted upright when inspiration struck. "Kono! Chin! Meet me in the kitchen!"

He raced down the stairs and moved straight to Steve's rarely used home phone, where sure enough there was a light blinking to indicate a message was waiting. The cousins rounded the corner just as Danny was reaching out to press the button, and both of them was wearing the same confused, hopeful expression. "Danny, what is it? Did you find something?" Chin asked quietly.

"Maybe. On Friday, when we were driving back to HQ, Steve got this phone call. He tried to downplay it as a missed meeting with an old friend, but he acted all weird about it and wouldn't really answer my questions. He said that this guy had left a bunch of messages on his phone, so I'm thinking that these are them. Steve promised me he wasn't getting called up from the reserves, but he's obviously not here, and maybe this guy—"

"Would know something," Kono finished, nodding. "You think there's a connection between the call and the boss disappearing?"

"It makes sense," Chin Ho said. "I mean, it seems to be our only guess thus far. Play the messages, Danny, and see if it's the same guy."

Danny needed no further prodding and immediately hit the button to start the messages, then stepped back to listen.

"_Five unheard messages. First unheard message sent Friday, 12:01 PM: Steve, hi, it's Raven. Call me when you get this. I need to hear from you ASAP. Something has come up. End of message._

_Next unheard message sent Friday, 12:15 PM: Hey Steve, it's me again. Call me back. End of message._

_Next unheard message, sent Friday, 12:52 PM: Raven again. I really need to hear from you. Now. I'm going to wait an hour in case you're not home, before calling again but I'd love to hear from you sooner. End of message._

_Next unheard message sent Friday, 1:50 PM: Steve, please check in. I have something you really need to hear. Please call. End of message._

_Next unheard message sent Friday, 2:30 PM: Okay, I've yet to hear from you, and I'm just going to break protocol here and leave you a message because your life—if you're even still alive—is not something I want to mess around with. Anyway, stupid question here, but do you remember Anton Gregorovitch? Yeah, it's about that son of a bitch. There's been chatter about him, and it isn't good. We've gotten word that he's plotting some revenge on his favourite Naval Intelligence Officer and SEAL who took him down, and he's headed your way. I know, no worries beause he's in jail but there's the really awful part. He was being transferred and got away. Took down two Interpol agents in the process—only one got away alive. He's coming for you, Steve. I would suggest putting that bolt hole of yours to good use right about now, and I know yours is well stocked enough to last you indefinitely. I finally tracked down your new cell number, so I'll try you there next, but just in case get the hell out of dodge, man. A massive shit storm is coming your way, McGarrett. Raven out. End of message._

_No unheard messages."_

Silently, Danny leaned forward and turned off the machine, and then looked at the other two members of 5-0. They both looked as shocked as he felt, and for once he didn't know what to say.

Finally, Kono broke the silence. "Who the hell is Anton Gregorovitch?"

"And what the hell is a bolt hole?" Danny countered?

"Most importantly," Chin threw in, "where the hell is McGarrett?"

Danny drove back to HQ in the Camaro alone, feeling almost worse than he had when Mattie had fled months ago. Once again, in the midst of his concern, he noted that McGarrett was as good as family to him now; he was just like a brother and his disappearance was eating away at the Jersey detective. He was anxious and stressed and had this awful feeling that he was never going to see his partner again, because if this was a situation where Steve didn't want to be found, then no one could. Chin had once made the passing comment that if a SEAL didn't want to be located, especially one of Steve's caliber, he wouldn't because they knew how to be invisible. That remark rang especially true now and pointed to the fact that Danny was never going to see Steve again in all likelihood. It made him a giant emotional mess.

He slammed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel and pushed the gas pedal just a little further down. Watching the speed creep up incrementally did little to satisfy him. He didn't know what any of this was about or why Steve might be running—which was the only possible explanation, it seemed, with the phone messages and lack of foul play—but it hurt him more that Steve hadn't trusted him enough to say anything. He thought that they would have been close enough for his partner to leave him a message, at least to say goodbye.

That's when it hit him: Steve's odd comments at the house. _"Be careful,"_ McGarrett had said. _"I'll see you around." _Now it was so obvious, but at the time Danny had just brushed off the comments as something innocent, albeit weird. "Damn it, I should have known!" He hit the steering wheel again, and then just sped up a little more, in hope that he would be able to run away from everything that was happening.

Maybe, if he drove fast enough, he could drive just far enough that he could forget missing friends and partners, and move onto a place that didn't hurt.

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**Well., any thoughts? The next chapter should be up relatively soon, but pretty please leave me a review and let me know what you think in the meantime! **

**Charlotte**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N 1: First off, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of reviews I got for the first chapter! It completely made my day(s) and motivated me to not only write more on this story but change it a bit too (don't worry, that's a good thing!). So you all should know that you're wonderful and I sincerely thank you for all your feedback. Keep it up! ;)**

**A/N 2: I'm a complete idiot and forgot to mention that this story is set in the same "universe" as my other story, ****_Riven_****-hence the small reference in the first chapter. (And yes, that was partly a shameless self-promotion.) So if you're interested, go check it out! **

**A/N 3: For those of you who were hoping to see more Steve in this chapter, I am sorry to disappoint you. This chapter lets you know more about the bad guy and more about the situation, but Steve is still MIA. You'll see him soon though so stick around! ALSO. This chapter is mostly team-centric while they figure out what's going on, so I'm sorry if it's too boring! **

**Disclaimer: I have no rights to the story or characters of ****_Hawaii Five-0. _****I'm merely borrowing them for my own enjoyment. **

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By the time Danny returned to headquarters, he had calmed down a bit, but his stress levels were still through the roof. He bypassed dropping anything by his office and walked straight to the table. "Have you found anything yet?"

Kono spoke up first. "We looked up anything we could find on Anton Gregorovitch, but there's nothing in the police files, which—"

"—is not surprising," Chin finished, "because it sounds like it's something from Naval Intelligence, and we're not going to have access to those records. Nobody has security clearance that high except—"

"—Steve," Danny said, finishing the loop. "Anything else?"

"There are no tickets booked under Steve's name at the airport, his truck's GPS has been disabled, and no luck with his cell phone either," Kono said.

"So no tracking him. What else?"

"Well," continued the older Hawaiian man, "the term that Raven used in the message sounded familiar to me, so I called an old buddy of mine who's dad used to train SEALs. He told me about a story that his dad told him. There was this rumor—a legend of sorts—amongst the SEALs of what are called bolt holes; it was supposedly a secret location known only to that SEAL and it was somewhere outside the country. In this location, they would have a secret bank account and identity that could be assumed if things went bad and he got compromised. But my friend said it was just a rumor that all SEALs had one—he didn't think anyone actually did."

"But it was on the phone message," Kono reminded her cousin. "That's got to mean something."

"And it's McGarrett," Danny added. "Normally I don't think he thinks anything through but when he's in SEAL-mode, he's got back up plans for his back up plans for his main plan's back up plans. If anyone was going to have a rumored hideaway spot, it would be him."

"Exactly," Kono backed him up. "The boss would have a strategy for something like this."

"So we just have to figure out where his bolt hole would be, catch up to him, bring him home and help him bring Gregorovitch down." Danny said, hope creeping into his heart for the first time since this morning.

"But Danny," Chin quickly responded, "Steve is a SEAL. A damn good one by all accounts and everything that we've ever seen has backed that up. He's meticulous and careful in his plans, regardless of what we may think sometimes. He's not reckless, and if he really does have a bolt hole somewhere, he's got to have been maintaining it for years. He's going to have made sure that no one but him can ever find it. And even if by some random chance of fate we _did_ figure out where it is, we couldn't do anything. If Steve has a plan, we're not going to just be able to talk him out of it, and we certainly wouldn't be able to overpower him without almost killing him. We're good, but we're not his caliber; we haven't had his training. Very few people on Earth can stop him and even fewer people can change his mind. But regardless of that, we're never going to be able to find him."

"We could track his movements, cuz."

"No, we couldn't. He knows how to be invisible—we'd never be able to follow him, and he has a head start."

"So that's it?" Danny demanded indignantly, outrage bubbling up. "You just want to give up on him? 'Bye Steve, nice knowing you, you're a great friend, oh and by the way we're not going to look for you?' No! We can't just give up and accept that we aren't going to see him again! We're his best friends and the closest thing he has to family! If we don't look for him, who will?"

Chin's eyes flashed with anger. "I don't like it, Danny, but I don't see anything we can do. Steve's a good friend and boss, and I hate that I can't think of something. But I don't—none of us do—have the training that Steve does; there's a reason you call him Super SEAL. If he had wanted our help or to tell us where he was going, he would have said something or left a clue. But he didn't and I think we need to be rational about this. So don't act like you're the only one that is hurt by this Danny! I'm just as upset as you are, but someone needs to look at this logically!"

There was tense silence until Kono spoke quietly. "We can't fall apart like this, guys. We have to be a team whether McGarrett is here or not." She turned to Danny. "We're not going to give up, but Chin's right—we need some sort of plan. If we're going to find him, it can't be some half-assed attempt. But we are going to try, all right? If we do, though, we can't be snapping at each other's throats and attacking each other. Fighting isn't going to do any good and it sure as hell isn't going to bring Steve back. So just cut it out, both of you. Got it?"

Both Chin and Danny nodded, and the latter could feel his anger slipping away; he knew this wasn't Chin's fault, but the person he really wanted to yell at was conveniently not here. He sighed and ran a hand across his face. "But even thinking of something better won't be enough. We have to outthink McGarrett, and he's the one that always comes up with the crazy shit we do. Like Chin said, none of us were trained to think like a maniac and it puts us back at square one. We aren't better than the world's best."

Silence reigned in headquarters again and was once more broken by the rookie. "Is there any way to find out more on Gregorovitch? If we could find something on him, we might be able to find the boss."

"But that would probably require hacking into the Naval Intelligence database or something and we can't do that, cuz. Logistically or politically."

"You don't have anyone you could contact?" asked Danny. "Not even your friend?"

"He doesn't have anything to do with the Navy, just his dad. But he died a few years back. What about Joe? Do you think he would tell us?"

"I'm sure he would—the man's not exactly a stickler for rules, it seems. But I already tried calling him earlier on his old number and didn't get anything. We're going to be on our own for now unless—"

"Wait!" Kono interrupted. "Obviously, we know Gregorovitch isn't one of the good guys and has probably done some pretty nasty stuff to warrant attention from Naval Intelligence. Let's go the most obvious route. We could look through old news reports on attacks and threats and anything else to see if we can find his name. It won't tell us Steve's involvement, but it would give us a picture of who this guy is. We might be able to figure out what spooked Steve so much."

"That would be almost impossible though," Chin responded, still the voice of reason. "Of all the interagency reports and news clippings, the probability of finding anything is slim to none. We don't even know for sure what country this is from or where he operated."

"It has to be either Russia or somewhere else in Asia," Danny commented. "Steve once let slip—under the influence of pain meds, I should add—that the reason he spoke Russian, Korean and Chinese was because of what he did in Naval Intelligence." It was easy to talk about things like this, aspects of Steve's life in the abstract because it made it feel like just another case. It wasn't until he stopped to think about who's life they were dissecting that he felt sadness creeping over him again. "So maybe we could focus on those areas. I don't know what else to do." He bit his lip, mentally cursing the fact that McGarrett was such an enigma and cursing the fact that he even cared so much.

He looked up and his gaze fell straight into Steve's empty office, with all of his medals and awards. They were physical representations of what made Steve who he was, and the displays showed Danny how important the service was to his partner. He'd seen that look in Steve's eye during the SEAL case months ago, a gleam in his eyes that had been there when he was watching the video of the SEALs storming the compound. It was a look that said he missed it, missed the excitement and action of that life. Danny was almost glad that he had never asked Steve if he wanted to go back onto active duty because he wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer.

He tried to stop thinking for a moment and focused on the sound of both Kono and Chin working their search, wishing for the first time that he was technologically capable so that he could help find his friend. Finally, after glancing down at his watch, he realized that it had been almost an hour and that he was due to pick up Grace in not too long. Life went on even in the midst of chaos, he supposed. "Shit guys, I have to grab Grace—Rachel had aan appointment with the baby and Step-Stan is out of town. You'll call me if you get anything, right?"

Both cousins nodded at him simultaneously, and he knew in that moment that, despite his harsh words earlier, at least Chin and Kono would stand beside him; what remained of their little unit wouldn't crack any further. Things might never be what they once where, but they wouldn't be broken forever.

At least, he hoped.

It was only as he was walking to his car that his heart sank even further, something he didn't think was possible. Grace always asked about Steve when he saw her because she and 'Uncle Steve' were so close. He didn't know what he was going to tell his daughter—"Sorry Monkey, your Uncle Steve has up and left and I don't think we will ever see him again" didn't seem like quite the right thing. And yet, that was the truth.

He thought about it all the way to the school, but still didn't have a good response when Grace climbed into the car, a cheery smile on her small face. "Hi Danno! How was work? How's everyone? Today we got to learn about the Revolutionary War and it was really cool 'cause we learned about this guy called John Adams, and…" She kept chattering on and on, almost all the way towards headquarters, until she realized where they were going. "Why are we going to your work, Danno?"

Danny swallowed nervously. "I have some things I still have to do, Monkey, so you're going to have to hang out for a while. Is that okay?"

She nodded, still obliviously happy. "Of course! Will Uncle Steve be busy too?"

He opened his mouth, prepared to tell his daughter the harsh truth, when a simple lie came out instead. "Steve had to go to the mainland, Monkey, so he's not here right now."

"Oh." Her reply was accompanied by a small pout and then she smiled again and went back to telling him about her day and how she was going to make Aunt Kono take her surfing. Danny smiled in response, envious of her simple, happy state.

Danny had gotten Grace situated in his office, left a message for Rachel detailing where to pick up their daughter, and then moved back to the main room. "Anything yet?" he asked, despair slightly colouring his tone.

Chin Ho shook his head. "Nothing. We tried—"

"Wait!" Kono's voice rang out through the room. "I think I've got something. Her fingers were flying over the touch keyboard and both men moved closer, as if it would help them get the information faster. "I narrowed down my searches to the areas you mentioned, Danny, and then also looked for terrorist attacks or other incidents in the time range for when Steve worked at Naval Intelligence. The computer's been sifting through everything that fits in those parameters, especially looking for the name Anton Gregorovitch or a variation thereof. Then—"

"The point, Kono?" Danny asked impatiently.

"Right. So it just caught two articles from about the time Steve would have left Naval Intelligence, with the name Gregorovitch." She swiped her fingers, sending both articles to the main screen. "They're in Russian, but if I…" she trailed off, tapping a few buttons in the process. A copy of each article appeared on the screen next to the originals, this time in English. "Okay, the first one is a small article, looking back on terrorism in Russia, calling for new reforms by the government. Blah, blah, blah…oh there! Here's a small part on a string of bombings in suburbs of Moscow. It says a local man, Anton Gregorovitch, was claiming responsibility, supposedly because he was against American-Russian reconciliation in any form. All the bombs detonated in highly trafficked areas, three of which were schools and one was an American Naval research vessel in the Black Sea. The bombings continued for months until it was rumored the American military helped take him down, apparently right before a larger-scale attack was planned. The author goes on with his analysis, and it doesn't look like there's anything else, but it's something. The second one is an update about a missing person case, it seems. It says…Whoa."

"Whoa?" Danny immediately looked away from Kono and started to scan what she had been about to read. "Whoa what?"

"It says that this guy was the only relative of the main investigator into some of Gregorovitch's bombings, but he had nothing to do with the case. He went missing after his brother got assigned to the case. It says here that every week after the brother got the assignment he got a piece of his brother's body until he finally resigned—and then finally he got his brother's head. It goes on to say that this wasn't the first time that this had happened to someone investigating Gregorovitch; apparently a lot of family members of investigators went missing."

"Jesus. No wonder McGarrett left," Chin mused quietly after what Kono had said sunk in. "That could have been us."

Danny's gaze immediately slid to his daughter, and for the first time he was grateful for the choice his partner had made. This guy was a nasty piece of work who seemed to take joy in killing innocent people en masse; if Steve's decision kept that horror from his daughter, he might be able to forgive him. "So where do you think Steve fits into all of this?"

"Well, we probably go involved because of the bombing on the Navy ship and that probably means Naval Intelligence. If Steve was instrumental in helping take him down, especially before his big finale, that's got to make the guy hold a grudge," Chin commented.

"And if his issue was what he thought was a weakening national pride, the cooperation between our Navy and his government would especially rile the SOB up," Danny added.

"But how would he know Steve was involved?" Kono asked.

"That information can be bought for the right price from the right person, cuz."

All three were silent, and it gave Danny a second to muse about this new information. The more they dug into McGarrett's past, the more terrifyingly impressive and just plain terrifying it became. Steve was involved in so much crazy stuff, it seemed, and each new piece of information he got just revealed some scarier player. And barely any information he had gotten from Steve's past came from the man himself. He had a sinking feeling that if he were really to hear about Steve's naval past it would scare the shit out of him even more. Shaking his head, Danny returned to the matter at hand. "Okay. So now that we know this, how do we find Steve? Context doesn't get us closer to chasing him down."

Kono sighed. "I think we need to try to get ahold of Joe again. He knows Steve and his history better than any of us."

"But even if we can get ahold of him, he probably won't give us any new information; we know the basics, I think. And I doubt Steve would tell Joe the location of his hideout, if only to protect him," Chin said.

Danny spared another glance at Grace across the office, thinking that he would do anything to protect her from knowing what her Uncle Steve was involved in, and then it hit him. "He's protecting us!"

The cousins looked at him, eyebrows raised. "We've already established this, Danny," Kono said.

"I know that, just listen. We're thinking of how we would be able to find Steve's bolt hole and catch up with him, but think about it. Steve would do anything to protect his family and friends; we know that and that's got to be the reason he left. But we've been assuming that Steve fled to his bolt hole, gone to live out the rest of his days as someone else to keep Gregorovitch from looking for him here. But look at it in a bigger picture: if Gregorovitch knows who Steve is and is gunning for him, what is Super SEAL going to do?"

Realization dawned in Kono's eyes as she caught onto what Danny was implying. "He's going to take the threat out before Gregorovitch can use his ohana to get to him."

"Exactly. He's not going to sit in some safe house for the rest of his life. He's going to go on the offensive and eliminate the threat. So maybe it's not a matter of finding out the one spot in the world where Steve would hide. That would be a tiny needle in a massive haystack. But finding where Gregorovitch would be easier—he's escaped from custody. Everyone is going to be looking for him."

"But how do we get access to that information?" Chin crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean, we're a small taskforce not even on an official case. No one is going to tell us anything without an actual reason."

"Joe," Kono stated quickly. "He has ties to agencies all over, and I know for a fact he once mentioned a contact in Interpol. We have to get in touch with him."

Danny nodded in agreement. "You're right. I'll try calling him again and we'll hope that he actually answers this time." He closed his eyes and sighed. He hoped this worked because he didn't think he could come up with anything else. This was the time for a miracle and extremely good luck—he just hoped McGarrett's bad luck hadn't rubbed off on the rest of them.

* * *

"He's been gone _how_ long?" Joe White asked indignantly when he finally made it to the 5-0 headquarters. It was either very late at night or very early in the morning, but none of the team had gone home while waiting for Joe to arrive. He didn't say where he had been recently or where he had come from, instead jumping right into the situation. Rachel had come to get Grace hours ago, both leaving mostly oblivious to the situation. The time between their departure and Joe's arrival had been spent sifting through news reports in hopes of finding something else, but it had all been in vain.

"Since Friday, as far as we can tell."

"The problems this boy gets himself into," Joe said quietly, shaking his head. "Well, if your theory is correct, that would mean that he's had about three days, almost four days, to assume his new identity and start tracking Gregorovitch. That's a big head start."

"But if you could maybe get info about where Gregorovitch was being held or anything about his movements, we might be able to make up for lost time."

"Possibly. It's going to take some time though—information like this doesn't just flow in immediately. All three of you should go home and get some sleep. This is a puzzle that is going to need clear heads. And, frankly, you all look like shit."

Danny hated to admit it, but having someone take charge was such a relief. Normally he liked to be in control of a situation, but right now he was on such an emotional rollercoaster that he almost relished the firm direction. Nevertheless, he felt he had to protest at Joe's suggestion. "But if we leave—"

"Nothing will happen. You're not going to be able to do anything at this hour, especially not while I'm making calls. And you'll be no good if you're all dead on your feet. Go."

Finally the three of them acquiesced on the condition that Joe would call them with any news, no matter the time. But Danny didn't drive to his apartment; instead he drove to Steve's house, irrationally hoping that his partner's truck would be there and the man himself would be inside, laughing at Danny's worry.

But the house was as empty and dark as they had found it this morning, devoid of any signs of life.

As he settled in for the night on McGarrett's couch, his final thought was that if this was how stressful McGarrett's life had been as a SEAL, he could understand why he was so cranky all the time.

* * *

**I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but the exposition was necessary for everything to come. Please stick with me because I promise there's more exciting things to come! Any feedback is welcome!**

**Charlotte**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N 1: You guys are amazing. Seriously. All the reviews about the last chapter were just awesome and definitely waylaid any concerns I had about it. I truly appreciate all the feedback and all the kind comments. You guys just rock. **

**A/N 2: Since you all rock so much, I decided that I would combine what I had planned as chapters three and four into one longer one so that you could get Steve just a bit sooner. It's about double the length of the previous two chapters, but I think you'll like it. I hope anyway. And not to fear, you're not getting a chapter taken away-I'm adding to the story a bit, so that will make up for it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't have any rights to _Hawaii Five-0. _I am only borrowing the characters for the purposes of this story.**

* * *

A shrill ringing woke Danny up, and it took him a moment to remember where he was. Shaking the cobwebs from his mind, he quickly answered the phone. "Williams."

"Danny, Joe got something." Chin Ho thankfully got directly to the point. Danny wasn't sure he had the patience for small talk right now.

"I'll be there if fifteen." Seeing as how he wasn't at his apartment, he was stuck in the same clothes that he'd been wearing yesterday but he didn't think anyone would care. As he cleaned up, he reflected on the fact that his life had quickly dissolved into a constant game of searching and moving from place to place the last few days. He was tired, mentally and physically, and he just wanted answers. "Damn you, Steven, and all of your stupid heroism bull shit."

As it turned out, the traffic lights were on his side and he made it to headquarters two minutes earlier than projected. "I'm here!" he called out as he walked through the doors. "What do we have?"

It was Joe's voice that reached him. "One of my Interpol contacts came through for us. Apparently, two days ago in the Ukraine, a man discovered three men in the house next door, beaten and left for dead. Now that could have just been another day in the neighborhood, except for the fact that these three men were all known members of the same terrorist organization that Gregorovitch ran. Interpol had been monitoring them, so that's how they knew about the incident so quickly."

"It could be a coincidence," Danny stated. "Bad guys have more than one enemy."

"True. But then early the next morning there was a report of a man by the name of Viktor Kremkov found floating in the lake by his house, two bullets in his chest. This was across the border, not too far from Moscow. He was Gregorovitch's second in command when Steve helped take him down."

"Less likely to just be a random murder," Kono added.

"Exactly. And my contact got ahold of the travel records at the Ukrainian and Russian borders. After sifting through them, he found Australian man by the name of Alexander Lynch entering the Ukraine the day before the attack at the house, and then Russia the afternoon of Kremkov's death. He managed to avoid the cameras at all the checkpoints. When Interpol looked up this guy, his records go back only a decade or so—about the time that Steve became a SEAL."

"So this Alex Lynch is probably Steve," Danny said, his excitement growing.

"Most likely, although it's impossible to know for certain. It could just be this guy's movements align with the murders, but that would be a very large coincidence," Joe confirmed.

"Based on the men he's going after, he's got to be looking for information on Gregorovitch's current location," Chin surmised. "They were all connected to him at one point or another, so logic says that they might know where he is now."

"We know Steve has to be planning on killing him," Kono said. "If you look at the path of Steve's movements, he seems to be going toward Moscow—maybe Gregorovitch went home. Maybe we should just let Steve take Gregorovitch out and come back without interfering."

"If only," Joe interposed quickly. "Steve won't come back without being forced. He'll believe that his presence will be a threat to you all, even if Gregorovitch is eliminated. In his mind, if Gregorovitch could find him, someone else could as well. He'll probably keep living under the new identity in case any other bad guys come crawling out of the woodwork."

There was silence in the bullpen for a moment and each of them knew that Joe was right. Steve would think he had to protect his ohana even if the main threat was dead. His protective instinct was a mile wide. There would be no way to bring him back, unless… "I'll go to Moscow," Danny stated, realizing that it might be their only option.

"You'll do what?" Chin's tone was dubious.

"I'll go to Moscow, track him down, shadow him, and make him come back."

"You're not going to be able to find him, Danny. Moscow is a huge city, and with no data points to follow, it would be a wild goose chase," Joe said firmly. "You could be there for weeks—months even—and not find anything. Not to mention this has to be done delicately—we don't want to risk exposing Steve. Rushing off and spreading word that you're looking for Steve is just going to invite trouble."

"Then what do you suggest, Joe? That we just do nothing? I've had this conversation before, and it's just not going to happen."

"I'm not suggesting that. I'm just saying that you should wait a little bit. Let Steve or Gregorovitch pop up a few times, because one, if not both, of them will, and _then_ go. It may take a few weeks though; be ready to wait a while. Steve is methodical in gathering intelligence and planning an operation." The elder military man stopped at Danny's amused expression. "You may think he's impulsive, but most of the stuff you guys have done are small scale compared to things Steve has done in the past. He'll take his time even after finding Gregorovitch to make sure he has a place that is perfect to take the shot, a clean escape route, and back up plans for everything. This won't be something he'll do in a few days. He'll follow the target, learn his habits, do everything a good sniper should before ever taking the shot. But over that course of time, we'll be able to find him."

"How?" Kono asked.

"Gregorovitch. This is a known terrorist that escaped custody. He's not going to move throughout Moscow without being watched by someone. Steve's trail of interrogation, along with Interpol's investigation, will give us a general location. It will be easier to find someone that everyone is looking for than for one person that is being sought only by the people in this room. But it's not going to happen overnight, and you have to be prepared for the long haul." Joe looked at each of them in turn, making his way to Danny last, who finally nodded. "Good. Well, then I suggest getting back to everyday life. I'll contact you when I know more."

"You swear?" Danny asked, suspicious swirling in his gut. Steve trusted this man with his life and he had seen the lengths Joe had gone to personally to get Steve out of North Korea. But even so, there were things about Joe that even had McGarrett questioning him; Danny wasn't about to just trust him implicitly. "You're not just going to let him do his thing and live out his days with his new ID?"

Joe fixed him with a cold stare. "Danny, that man is like a son to me, and not only did I make a promise to Jack McGarrett to protect the boy—which includes from himself and his sometime insane ideas—but he's also got a lot left to do here. I'm not going to let him take the easy way out of this one."

Satisfied with his answer, the New Jersey detective nodded. "Okay then, we'll wait for your call."

* * *

And wait they did. It had been three long and stressful weeks since McGarrett had pulled his vanishing act, and each day of waiting was almost more torture than the last. Danny had finally had to tell Grace the roundabout truth, and the knowledge that Uncle Steve had left without saying goodbye had angered Grace almost as much as it did her father. Steve was going to have hell to pay when he got back, coming at him in the form of an irate nine-year-old.

The governor had thankfully not disbanded 5-0 (although he was under the rather doubtful impression that McGarrett was visiting his sick sister in Los Angeles, not playing Super SEAL halfway across the world), and their lives were proceeding as "normal." But each of them had changed in subtle ways; Danny was more irritable and hot tempered, Chin had coolly stowed all his frustrations away and subtly stepped up as the unofficial leader as Danny spent most of his time investigating Steve, and Kono went to the gun range a lot. They all stood by each other, but Danny could see where they were fraying at the edges under the stress. And without Steve.

It was as week three was rounding into week four—just when Danny didn't know how much longer he could hold out without any news—that the phone call came. They were all standing around the main table in the Palace, wrapping up a case, when Joe's name came up on Danny's ringing cell phone.

Chin, Kono, and he all exchanged weary glances before Danny picked up. "You're on speaker, Joe."

"Good," the older man replied, his voice sounding tired. "Well, I think you might want to buy a plane ticket to Moscow, Williams, if you still plan on going."

Simultaneously, smiles broke out on everyone's face. "You've got a location, Joe?" Kono asked quickly before Danny could respond.

"I think so, though no thanks to Steve. I shouldn't have trained him so damn well. There was only one more sighting of Lynch this last month at a train station in Moscow, but nothing since."

"But then how—"

Joe cut her off. "Gregorovitch. Since he escaped his prison transfer, all eyes have been on him. There's been chatter about his location for weeks but nothing solid until two days ago."

"Two days!" Anger exploded out of Danny quickly. "Why didn't you call two days ago then?"

"Because the information had to be verified. There's a Naval Intelligence officer that has relocated to work with the Russian government on tracking Gregorovitch down. This officer worked under Steve when he helped gather the evidence against Gregorovitch the first time. The bodies of his two sons were discovered in a seedy district near the railways across town. It's unlikely they were there looking for a good time, though that's how it was staged, and more likely that Gregorovitch is putting his pressure tactics to use. This area is known for its criminal activity and thriving black market, making it likely that Gregorovitch is based somewhere there. Interpol is going to be making systematic raids of the district starting in the next few days, but my guess is that Steve will be going to make his move first. If you're going to find him before that happens, I'd get on the first flight there and I'll give you further details when you land."

Danny agreed, and with a few more words, Joe was gone. He looked at the cousins, and said the first thing that came to his mind. "You guys should come too."

"Danny, you leaving suddenly is going to cause enough problems with the governor. If we all disappear, we might not come back to jobs." Kono nodded in agreement at her cousins words, and then they were both flying into action. Kono's fingers were flying over the digital keyboard, pulling up flight schedules and Chin was busy making a list of things he would need.

"Okay, so I can get you a flight that departs tonight—you have to make a connection in LA, but it will get you there by late tomorrow. You don't want to know how much it is, but it's a good thing the boss left his wallet here. He can pay for his own retrieval." That earned her a grin and a nod from Danny. "Serves him right for stressing us all out this past month!"

It was Chin's turn next, and he showed is resourcefulness in thinking of all the things Danny might need, even things Danny wouldn't have thought of himself.

It was a group effort, but by the time Danny needed to be at the airport, he was packed and ready to go. He had said goodbye to his daughter briefly, who had firmly told him that he was not allowed to come back without Steve, and had cleared his leave with the governor—who didn't really believe that McGarrett's sister was _still_ sick or that Danny's brother was suddenly getting married, but he let Danny go without a fight. All that was left was to find Steve and bring him home. He felt like everything would be okay after that.

He hugged Kono and Chin before going through security and Kono's parting words rang in his ears all throughout the flight: "Bring him home."

* * *

Danny tried sleeping on the plane, but it was restless and he didn't get the escape he so desired. Everything that had happened in the last month continually made him want to turn back time to that moment in the car when Steve got that phone call; he would force Steve to tell the truth, force him to deal with it in a different way, force him, most importantly, to _stay_. He missed his partner; he missed their friendship—because Steve was the best friend he had—and the way Steve forced him out of his self-imposed shell. He missed Steve's companionship and what he added to the detective's life.

When his plane finally touched down, Danny was almost more tired than when he had started. He couldn't even appreciate the fact that he was in Russia because he was so focused and exhausted.

After calling and receiving directions from Joe, Danny took a cab to his hotel in the crime-filled district of Moscow to which he had been directed. He had checked in, showered, despaired of ever finding his partner, before deciding that food was definitely in order. He had really neglected himself over the past few days especially, but over the course of the past month he had not paid that much attention to his own health. Meals often went cold as he poured over any and all clues that he could possibly find about Steve, and the undue amounts of stress had given him a weary, almost haunted look. He knew that if he didn't find Steve he couldn't continue on like before. As hard as it would be, he would have to accept that his life would revert to a pre-Steven time, and move on. He couldn't keep falling apart just because his best friend, his brother, was gone.

And so, finally giving into the demands of his stomach, he left his room and was walking out of the lobby when it happened. He glanced across the street and there he was. Steve McGarrett, looking the part of the Super SEAL perfectly in dark pants, a dark shirt and jacket, walking past him on the other side of the street. It was too easy, like fate had made it happen, and Danny whispered a word of thanks to the universe. He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and was just overwhelming thankful that someone was smiling down on him at this moment.

He wanted to call out, but he knew that nothing good would come of it. Steve wouldn't acknowledge him and would probably just disappear faster than he'd magically appeared. So instead, Danny decided to follow him.

In hindsight, it was a little ridiculous. Steve was a SEAL and had been trained in so many ways Danny could never compete with, no matter how good of detective the Jersey man was. So of course the man was going to notice a tail no matter how subtle Danny was sure he was being. He managed to track his partner for three blocks before Steve was just gone. One minute he had been on the street, and the next he had just vanished. Danny swore under his breath, and stayed in the same spot for a moment, thinking. If McGarrett had been walking down that street, there must have been a reason; his base had to be somewhere nearby, and therefore so must Gregorovitch's.

Quickly, Danny pulled out his phone, dialing Joe's number. The man had given him instructions to call at any time, and Danny wasn't going to ignore that advice. "Joe, I saw him," he said as soon the older man picked up.

"Steve?"

"No, the frickin' king of England. Yes, Steve. Right outside my hotel, he was walking on the other side of the street. I tried following him, but…"

He heard Joe snort. "No offense, Williams, because you are a great cop, but Steve always had a sixth sense about tails that has saved our collective asses too many times to count. But it's good. If he's there—"

"It's for a reason." Danny rubbed a hand over his face. "Damn it, Joe, you should have come. You would be able to find him and track him down."

"But I wouldn't be able to bring him back, son. I may be almost family to him, but I'm always going to be his commanding officer first. I could order him back, and he might come but he wouldn't stay. But you—you're his brother. You're going to be able to find the right words and make it stick. You'll be able to make him _want_ to come home; this is our only shot. Now, tell me what you see."

Danny looked around, billboards and signs in an unfamiliar language looking back at him. "Um, lots of buildings."

"Which one is the tallest?"

He studied his surroundings again with a more critical eye. "There's actually only three that are above about four stories. Most of them are pretty short right around here. Why?"

"Steve's going to set his nest up where there's height. Which ones are they? Describe them."

Danny focused on those specific buildings. "One is—hey that's my hotel. I recognize the ugly paint on the outside." His heart leapt in excitement. "Do you think he's there?"

"No. Steve would never pick somewhere that he could incidentally involve civilians, harm them, or be seen."

"Oh. Well, there's also one that looks sort of like a commercial building, but it seems pretty empty—there are no lights on or any movement. And the third one is under construction."

There was silence on the other end of the line as Joe obviously thought about the options. "I would say the one that's under construction, but that's going to be the most obvious for anyone looking for a sniper. Which Gregorovitch's underlings will probably do as soon as their boss gets taken out. My bet is that he's going to be in the other one. Damn, Danny, I don't know who was smiling down on you at the right moment. I'll be honest, I thought this was going to be a wild goose chase; I honestly didn't think you'd find him. He's one of the best and when he sets his mind to it…let's say stubborn is an understatement. I was sure this was going to end in heartbreak, but you got luckier than anyone I've ever seen. Don't screw the rest of this up, Williams."

Danny heaved a sigh. "I know, Joe, I know. Believe me, I'm going to do everything I can not to. So you think I should look in that building? When?"

"Now." Things on the McGarrett-front had slowed down to nothing for the past month, and now they were hitting him faster than he knew what to do. "Steve will act as soon as possible. You don't need to stop him, Williams, just bring him back."

After hanging up, Danny wondered if he could watch his partner shoot someone—even someone that deserved it—without doing anything. He had heard enough and had figured out enough that he could guess Steve wasn't a stranger to the sniper rifle and all that entailed. But Danny was trained to try to save lives at almost any cost, to prevent crime and death. Standing aside to let Steve kill a man in cold blood seemed to go against everything he stood for.

Then he shook his head. If the choice was between letting Steve complete his mission, which allowed him to come home, or saving the life of a known terrorist, Danny wouldn't hesitate. He wasn't going to pick some low-life that didn't really deserve to be the scum on his partner's shoes over saving said partner. He pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and started walking in the direction of the building Joe had suggested. He felt naked without a weapon, and hoped like hell he wasn't going to need one.

He maneuvered his way quickly through the streets, trying his best not to shy away from some of the people he saw. He obviously was not in the clean streets of Oahu that he knew anymore. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made it to the base of the building. He couldn't read the sign above the door, but it looked like some sort of industrial space that was still trying to be filled. The economy was apparently not booming under the drug dealers and pimps in the neighborhood.

Pulling his new cell phone out again, Danny dialed Joe for a third time. "Okay, I'm looking at the building. Where the hell should I look?"

"How many stories?"

"Um…eight, from what I can tell."

"Go to the top and work your way down. Steve has always preferred being as high as possible."

"Right, that's always a plus when shooting people. What happens if he misses?"

That earned him another snort. "Steve doesn't miss. Don't worry about that, just worry about finding him and bringing him home."

Danny was getting really sick of hearing that, especially because that's all he had been thinking about for the last month. "Got it, Joe."

He made his way up to the top floor, thanking his lucky stars no one was around. He didn't know a lick of Russian and only new a little Spanish; there would be no easy way to explain himself unless the interrogator happened to speak English.

In the fading light, Danny checked on the rooms on the level, even checking that there was no roof access. He moved down a level and was sweeping the place when he heard footsteps. He knew Steve's walk and this didn't match. He didn't know if he was even supposed to be in here and didn't really want to explain his presence if he wasn't. Thinking quickly, he moved to stand by storefront that was in the process of being repaired and ducked behind the large piece of plywood that was leaning up against the front of the store, covering a large hole. He could see what looked to be a security guard walk past and waited until he had descended the stairs before moving out from behind the plywood.

Danny finished his examination of the seventh floor, but it was without Steve as well. He was starting to lose hope, even though he had only check out two levels. Nonetheless, he cautiously moved down a floor anyway. He peeked in all the rooms that he could on the sixth and found nothing except lights blazing in empty shops. Then it hit him: the broken storefront where he had hid. It had been the only shop without a thousand lights on. He suddenly knew that that was where his partner would be as surely as if he had been struck by lightning.

Danny moved back upstairs and quietly crawled back behind the plywood that had shielded him earlier. Using his phone as a dim light, he could see that not only did the plywood shield the hole in the storefront wall but also the hole in the store's grate that somebody had created.

He entered the small shop, crawling on his hands and knees through the torched edges of the grate; it looked like someone had taken a blow torch to it in order to create a SEAL-shaped hole.

The store was lit only by the natural light coming in through the expansive windows that lined the opposite wall. And there, 100 feet away from him lying on a table with a sniper rifle in his hands, was Steve McGarrett. Before Danny could say a word, his partner turned around and fixed him with a cold stare.

The month did not look like it had been kind to Steve, Danny noted. He was thin—gaunt really—and had bruising down one side of his face that Danny hadn't been able to see before. He had removed his jacket that Danny had seen earlier, and now he could see thick white gauze poking out the end of Steve's shirt sleeve. He looked work out and completely exhausted, like he hadn't slept in ages. When he spoke, his voice was rusty, like he hadn't talked to anyone for a while. But most of all, it was flat, like Steve had tamped down all emotion in the time on his own. "I don't know how you found me, and I don't care what you have to say. You can either stay and watch, or you can leave. Either way, be quiet."

Danny's anger immediately rose up at Steve's tone and words, but didn't get a chance to speak because McGarrett just fixed him with one more look and then turned back to his scope. Suddenly a noise filled the room, and a radio Danny didn't realize was on the table seemed to be the source.

Although it was in Russian, it sounded like mid-conversation someone had moved into a room that was obviously bugged—probably by Steve. Danny watched as his partner tensed at the exchange, then readjusted his position. "You have about thirty seconds to decide if you're staying or going." Steve had stayed perfectly still as he spoke, his eye never leaving the view in his scope.

Danny only had to think a second before he confirmed with himself what he had decided earlier: he wasn't going to stop his partner from doing what had to be done, and he wasn't going to turn away just because it was ugly. "I'm staying."

"Fine." Then before Danny could say anything else, he heard Steve exhale and then a small _pop_ as a bullet left the silenced chamber. There was a corresponding sound of breaking glass from the radio and panicked tones, before another exhale, another pop, then that pattern twice more. All within two minutes.

And then it was done.

Steve was sliding off the table before Danny had registered that the mission was complete, breaking down his gun and packing it away. He stopped to retrieve all four shell casings before zipping everything away in black nylon bag, and turning around.

"Is—did you kill Gregorovitch?"

Steve didn't seem surprised that Danny knew the name, or if he was it didn't show. "Yes. And his top three men. Right as they were discussing their plans to come to Hawaii, whether I was there or not. They were going to use you guys to lure me out. Do you have a problem what I did?" Steve's eyes were narrowed, his eyes giving away nothing.

"No," Danny said, realizing once more that he didn't, especially because Steve had just saved everyone close to him from a most certainly brutal death. He moved toward the window a bit. "How far away was the," he searched for the right word, "target?"

"About 1600 meters."

"That's…That's really far, Steve." Danny said, completely amazed.

"Yes, I realize that, but it's not my record."

"And you're sure it was him?" Steve showed the first sign of emotion at Danny's question as a quick look of trepidation crossed his face. "Steve? You're sure, right?"

"There's only one known photo of Anton Gregorovitch, and it's grainy at best. But they called him by that name and he responded to it, so yes. It had to be him. Now, obviously you decided to stay but I have an exit strategy I plan on keeping. So unless you've got anything else unnecessary to add, can we move?"

Danny blinked, a rant bubbling to the surface. "Unnecessary? _Un-_frickin-_necessary?_ Are you shitting me right now, Steven?" He didn't stop talking even as McGarrett grabbed his arm and dragged him back towards the entrance. "I just flew half way across the world to bring you home and you call my questions _unnecessary? _That's after having to deal with you disappearing and then waiting a fricking month to find out anything! A month, Steven! How do you think that felt? And I have a few questions I asked and you call them unnecessary?" His face was red with anger and he was speaking loudly, but it was like McGarrett just didn't even process any of it. He was on a mission, and nothing was going to stop him.

They made it out of the building unharmed and once they were in the street, Steve turned around to face Danny. "You're going to go back to your hotel and wait for me there. What room number are you?"

"No."

Super-SEAL apparently did not find that amusing. "Danny this isn't something you get a say in."

"No, I think I do. I did not fly all the way here just for you to disappear on me like I know you plan to. You're staying with me at all times, babe. I bet you have everything you own and need in that bag with you, so you're coming with me."

Steve seemed to go through his aneurysm- and thinking-face in the span of two seconds, but finally nodded. "Fine. But I actually do need to grab something from my place, so we'll talk there."

Danny acquiesced, noting that Steve had only said that they would talk—no promise of coming with him afterwards. But he didn't say anything and followed his crazy partner down the street, noticing the way Steve checked behind him as they went. "You think we're being tailed?"

"I'm not taking any chances. Just keep up."

"_Just keep up_," he mimicked, hating the way his partner was acting. He was being a total ass and completely standoffish, like having Danny there was the worst thing in the world. But even though he was fed up with this military-mode Steve, Danny also loved the fact that he was actually there, in the flesh, when he had been gone for so long.

They didn't walk for long before Steve stepped into an ugly apartment building that had trash piling up and paint peeling from the walls. "You take me only the nicest places, babe," Danny remarked; all he got in response was a quick, blank look.

Steve unlocked the door to the first apartment on the left and stepped inside quickly, pulling Danny in behind him. "Just sit tight for a minute, okay? Then I'll answer your questions and take you back to your hotel."

"What do you mean 'take me back?'"

"I've got something left to do, Danny."

"Gregorovitch is dead."

"I know. But there's something else." The SEAL didn't say anything else before he moved away, leaving Danny in the main room. There wasn't much in the way of furniture or decoration, but Danny could see a wall that looked like it was dedicated to Gregorovitch and his movements. Then, as Danny turned around, he saw a picture of the 5-0 team and Grace tucked into the molding above the door. It was the picture that had been missing from Steve's house back in Hawaii. In that instant, he knew he had his leverage for getting his partner back.

He was just about to open his mouth when he noticed a bloody handprint on the table where Steve had set down his bag. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that fresh?"

"Is what fresh?" Steve yelled, his voice coming from somewhere deeper in the apartment.

"Um, the blood on the table?"

There was a mumbled curse from the back room, and Danny could tell that time away from Hawaii had done nothing for Steve's sailor mouth. "I must have torn my stitches again."

"Your wh—your stitches? _Again_? What the hell, Steve?" He could also tell that Steve hadn't stopped being reckless with his own health.

"It hasn't exactly been a piece of cake getting to this point, Danny," Steve called back, an edge of anger to his voice. "People just didn't tell me what they knew. Life hasn't exactly been easy."

His response was cut off all of a sudden by a knock on the door. Steve appeared quickly, gun in hand. He pointed determinedly to the closet in the next room and whispered, "Get in there now."

Not having to be told twice, Danny quickly hid himself, thankful that the door had slits in it so that he could see what was going on. Because of them, he could see the way Steve tensed as he opened the door, then relaxed only slightly when he saw who it was. "Hey man, how you doing?"

Danny could just see the back of whoever the guest was: he was tall with short blond hair. "I've been better. Just got an interesting call from my contact. Said that Anton and his whole team were down. Head shots. Sound familiar?"

McGarrett shrugged, placing the gun on the table to ease the tension. "Maybe. What did you think I was going to do when you gave me his location?"

"Damn it, Alex, I thought you were going to get in with him, not kill him! I didn't help him escape just to have this happen! Not only did he owe me, but we had plans!" Danny's eyes widened as he realized that whoever this man was, he was the reason Gregorovitch had been lost during his transfer. "As you can probably guess, that's going to take longer to get off the ground now that he's dead!"

McGarrett shrugged nonchalantly, and only because Danny knew him so well could he see the tension underneath. "Not my problem."

"What do you mean it's not your problem? It is your problem! _You're _going to become my new partner so we can get it under way. I'm not just going to let this opportunity slide. Got it? And no one is going to find out about it, okay?"

McGarrett laughed sarcastically. "What, you don't want Interpol finding out that their golden boy has been bought by the bad guys?"

"Shut it, Lynch. Just keep quiet and meet me at the—" He stopped speaking because at that ill-opportune moment, Danny's phone started ringing. He mumbled a curse and silenced it, but it was too late. "Who's here? Why didn't you tell me someone was here?" The man was immediately moving from room to room, bristling in anger.

Danny could hear his partner trying to placate the other man. "Hey man, it was just my phone."

"You don't keep a phone! You told me multiple times that I couldn't call you because you don't have a fucking phone!"

"Just relax. No one is here, I swear—"

"I swear to God, Lynch, if you're lying I will fucking kill you and whoever you're hiding. No one can know I here!"

"Jesus, Schmidt. No one is here and no one is going to snitch on you. Will you just calm down?"

Danny thought that maybe everything would be okay, that the man—Schmidt—could be placated, when suddenly a shadow fell across his face. He looked up to see the agent standing in front of the closest door. "What's in the fucking closest?" Schmidt asked angrily.

"Nothing. Just some towels." Danny envied the way Steve's voice was totally calm, since he was sure his would sound all high pitched and squeaky, because his heart was beating what felt like a thousand beats per minute. He had no weapon and Steve's hands were empty. He had thought that with Gregorovitch out of the way, everything would just be easy. He thought they could just go home and back to the way things were. He should have known that was naïve, because nothing with his partner was ever easy.

"So you won't mind me checking in there?"

There was a beat; Schmidt started to reach for the door handle, and then it was like everything just exploded.

He had once heard Chin say that Steve didn't need a weapon because he was one. Danny could unquestioning say that was the truth after watching his partner spring into action. Steve launched himself at the other man, and they started trading punches with a speed that Danny could barely track. He wanted to do something to help, but he knew that he was in way over his head—he was competent, but he didn't have the hand-to-hand training that McGarrett and the Interpol agent obviously had. He would probably end up doing more harm than good. Not to mention the fact that with the fight right in front of him, there was really nowhere to go.

For a while it looked like McGarrett was gaining the upper hand—that is, until Schmidt pulled out a knife. Danny yelled out instinctively, not knowing if his friend had seen it or not. Danny's voice momentarily broke the agent's concentration, giving Steve enough time to grab whatever weapon he could. Which, Danny realized with a groan, was not one of the numerous guns he knew had to be there, but a pen.

The fight continued at a fast pace, and he would have been amazed at how good Steve was if not for the all-consuming panic that Steve was about to get stabbed. He had seen Steve fight but never with this complete abandon and urgency. Amazingly enough, though, McGarrett was holding and using that pen like it actually was a deadly weapon, and the Interpol agent was trying to dodge it like it might do some real damage.

Danny watched the two of them fighting from his hidden position, holding his breath as they each held their own. Then suddenly things shifted when the agent pressed forward quickly and Steve backed up, only to stumble against something on the floor. This gave the other man just enough time to plant the knife in Steve's side. Danny shouted again, but both of the others were almost frozen for a second, looking at the handle of the knife sticking out of the SEAL. Then the spell was broken and the rogue Interpol agent started moving towards the closest, presumably to kill Danny.

Danny was scrambling, trying to think of a solution when Steve called out. "Schmidt!" Whether out of curiosity or just plain stupidity, the man turned around. Whatever the reason was, it was the last thing he did because Steve threw the knife, which he had pulled from his own torso, with deadly accuracy. It landed high, right in the man's heart. He stood for a second, and then crumpled to the ground, dead.

* * *

**I know it was long, but I hope it was worth it. I'm a little unsure if I'm happy with the middle of this chapter, so I hope all of you were happier with it. The next chapter should be up soon!**

**Charlotte**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N 1: Once more, I want to thank all of you for the amazing reviews that I got for the last chapter. It makes me both want to update immediately and stretch it out as long as I can to make the happy feeling I get from each review last.**

**A/N 2: By the end of this chapter we're now heading into territory that diverges from my original story. I personally think this ending is much better than I what I originally had but it also means that I'm writing the rest of it now. I don't think you'll have to wait any longer between updates and so no one worry! The next (and probably final, minus the epilogue) chapter will be up probably within the next four or five days. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this and that the changes were worth it! :)**

**Disclaimer: I still have no rights to ****_Hawaii Five-0_**** and I get nothing from this story other than the enjoyment of writing.**

* * *

They were sitting in Danny's hotel room, not speaking to one another. After the fight; Danny's concern-filled rant about going into a knife fight with a _pen_; Steve's refusal to go to a hospital; Danny's worry-filled rant about that; and then Danny's refusal to stay in the apartment with the body, they had packed Steve's stuff up and come here. Once they had come back, Danny had watched—and helped—as Steve stitched both of his wounds closed, then changed into another black t-shirt and black cargo pants. The whole time Danny argued that the SEAL should really go to a hospital, but he got nowhere. Steve continually refused to seek medical treatment, and once the refusals reached a point where they were too annoying, Danny switched tactics with the compromise that he could wait until they got back to Hawaii. To which Steve had replied that, while he was grateful for Danny coming, he wouldn't be going back to the islands with him. Danny had argued, cajoled, even begged and pleaded, but he still got no as his answer. This had led to stony silence on both of their parts.

Danny knew he wasn't getting anywhere with his stubborn-ass partner, so yet again he tried something different. "Come on, Steve. Think about Grace. She wants her Uncle Steve back."

Whereas before he had gotten polite refusals, this one earned him anger. "I _am _thinking about Grace!" Steve yelled at him. "And Kono, and Chin, and you! I'm thinking of my sister, and my girlfriend and my mentor, and I'm thinking _especially_ about your little girl! I'm thinking about the fact that this could happen again, but that maybe I won't be able to take out the target first and that all of you could end up dead! I was thinking of you when I left! I was thinking that all of you didn't need to be put in danger because of me! I've always been thinking of Grace and how to protect her!"

"You can't just leave because you're scared though, Steven! You don't know something else is going to happen."

"It just did, Danny! Barely an hour after I'd taken out one threat, another came knocking."

"That was directly related to the first, so it doesn't count."

"Damn it, Danny! Are you even listening to yourself? The 'first one'—you don't know who else might come after me in the future. I've made a lot of enemies over the course of my career, and any one of them could decide to get revenge. If I'm not in Hawaii, everyone I care about is safer!"

"But we're not, Steve! If your enemies know that you have connections to us, we could still be used against you, but you wouldn't be there to protect us. You keep us safe by being there. Besides, we all know that you come with a past. We knew that in the beginning and with Taylor, but we stayed. And you're not the only one. We all have history, and while yours is a bit more treacherous, we still know what we signed up for." He could see Steve's resolve weaken just a tiny bit, and so he plunged ahead. "Besides, as Grace's overprotective father, I get to say who gets to be trusted around her. And you, my friend, are at the top of the list. I know you would do anything to keep her safe and whatever I asked of you, but I'm not asking you to just leave or disappear." He went in with his final push. "Besides all of that, we miss you Steve. I miss you. You're a pain in the ass, but you're my best friend. You make that pineapple-infested hellhole better and I can't watch my best friend walk away just like my brother did."

Steve closed his eyes, and Danny looked at him unflinchingly. There was a cut on his forehead, bruising around his eye, and he was pale. Before he shut them, Danny had seen pain, guilt, anger, and sadness in his partner's eyes, and Danny just wanted to give him the hug he looked like he desperately needed. But Danny held his distance as Steve thought about what he had said, adding only, "Besides, I think you want to come back too. It's your home now, and a life away from us isn't fair to you at all."

They were both silent, before Steve finally quietly and wearily said, "I _do_ want to come back, and I don't want to walk away like Matt did—that's the last thing I want to do to you. To all of you. But I don't see how I can come back without putting you all at risk. I'm not safe."

Danny's mind flashed back to another conversation similar to this almost a year ago, and once again he struggled to find the right words. "You're making me repeat myself, Steven. We all have baggage, and yours is not the only one that can be dangerous. Things from my past may not be classified, but it was my ex-partner that almost got my daughter killed." He swallowed the lump in his throat that grew every time he thought about that ordeal. "Chin's history might be a well-known issue, but maybe next time we're targets because of something he did on the force. Kono…well she doesn't really have a history, but maybe a lover scorned comes to take us all out." That one earned him a thin smile. "Hey, you never know. That girl is a heart breaker, mark my words. But my point, again since I've already said this, is that you leaving doesn't take the danger out of the equation—it just means that you won't be there to help us get through it, whatever angle it comes from. We work in a dangerous profession, and whether you're there or not, the danger won't go away. Now, will you please come home?"

If he had been expecting a quick turnaround with an affirmative answer, he was bound for disappointment. Steve just gingerly ran a hand over his face and turned away. "Let me sleep on it, Danny. We both need the rest."

Danny's heart sank, but at least it wasn't a complete rejection. There was still hope.

* * *

When Danny awoke the next morning, Steve was gone. The couch where he had slept was empty and the room was silent. Immediately he started to panic, and was pulling out his phone to frantically call Joe when Steve walked through the door.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Danny yelled at him before collapsing down on the bed again. "You _left_?"

Steve held up the coffee cups balanced in his hand and said sheepishly, "Sorry. I just thought you'd want coffee before the flight home."

"Thank you," Danny grumbled. "But it was still ridiculous to leave…" He trailed off, his mind running over what Steve had said. "You said 'the' flight, not 'your' flight."

His still too-pale partner gave him a small smile, although his eyes were still stormy. "I thought about what you said last night—a lot. I had been so set against ever coming back that it was hard to see it another way. I was so sure that leaving would be the best thing, that it would protect you all so much better, that as much as it sucked to never see any of you again, it was the best thing. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make to keep you out of harm's way. I was such an ass to you yesterday, because if I talked to you like old times I was so afraid I would lose all of my determination. But then I started to think about what you said, and it made some sense. And I also realized that I would go crazy not being there if something actually happened, always wondering if everyone was okay. It seemed a bit like defeating the whole of leaving if something might happen anyway and I wasn't there to help." He shrugged, and Danny saw him wince in pain. "So I'll come back."

Danny could believe it. His hellish month might actually have a happy ending. "So you're completely serious? You're not just saying that to get me to the airport where you can then ditch me?"

"No, Danny, I swear. I'm coming back."

All of the things that Danny wanted to rant at Steve about fell to the wayside in that moment. It seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, like he could breathe again in a way that he hadn't been able to for weeks. He wasn't going to have to go home alone and face not only being without his best friend, but also face explaining to everyone why he failed. "Good. That's really, really good." He smiled broadly for the first time in ages, but it disappeared just as quickly when he thought about what had happened last night. "What about Schmidt?"

Steve rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, and as his shirt rode up Danny could see the red and angry skin under his new bandage "No one is going to find Schmidt's body anytime soon—I threw his body in the Moskva River while you were asleep. And Interpol is going to be more concerned about what he's done then where he is right now. They got an anonymous tip this morning that Gregorovitch and a man fitting Schmidt's description were seen together last night. That's going to raise more questions than Interpol is prepared for and will keep the focus off of his death. But it doesn't matter anyway because there are no cameras in that building and no way to trace him to me—it won't be a problem."

"Why didn't you take him out earlier, once you'd gotten the information you needed?"

"I was going to let Interpol deal with him, to be honest. He wasn't a direct threat, and I—I didn't want to kill anyone other than who I had to."

He couldn't deny that that lessened the nagging worry in the back of his mind about his partner's moral compass. "And are we even going to be able to get out of the country? Is your ID still good?"

"It's solid. I should be able to clear customs just fine."

"And how is your," he motioned towards Steve's side, "you know?"

The SEAL's hand ghosted over his wound, and Danny noticed how he avoided contacting the skin directly. "I'm okay to fly."

Danny nodded, mostly satisfied by Steve's answers. "Okay then. When do we leave? Oh, and you're buying my ticket because those things are not cheap and it's your fault I'm here."

Danny updated the team and nearly four hours later they were sitting in front of their gate. Danny was just itching to be on the plane and back to Hawaii, back to normalcy. Things weren't awkward with Steve, but they weren't typical either. The SEAL was tense, constantly checking around him like there were going to be bad guys jumping out from behind every corner. Danny wanted to talk about everything that had happened; figure out what the month had been life on Steve's end; tell him how amazed he was at Steve's shooting and fighting; yell at him for leaving; and a thousand other things, but starting a conversation with the man was almost harder than starting one with Rachel sometimes. Steve didn't ask any questions about home or the rest of the team. He barely spoke at all. If he weren't so happy to see him, the silence would have driven Danny nuts.

They boarded the plane and Danny couldn't have been more grateful for the first class seat. "Your alter-ego must be loaded," he remarked quietly.

Steve shrugged, wincing again. "I've been putting away almost a thousand dollars a month for a decade; being deployed and living on base meant that my monthly expenses weren't that much. That allowed me to put enough away."

Danny sputtered. "Enough? _Enough_?!" He did quick calculations. "That's over a hundred thousand! At least! Why the hell did you put away so much?"

There was that stormy look in McGarrett's eyes again, but it passed just as soon as Danny saw it. "I expected that if I ever had to use the identity, it would be long-term. I wouldn't be going back to my old life for a while, if ever. I needed enough to keep me going."

"Well I'd say that was enough. Since you _are_ coming back, can I have that for Gracie's college fund?" His joke fell flat though, apparently, because Steve just turned to look out the window.

He was saved from having to try to make more conversation when the plane finally took off, and Steve lapsed into a fitful sleep not long afterwards. Danny assumed it was just the weariness of the past month finally catching up to him—it didn't look, after all, like his partner had really slept or ate decently for a while. Steve neglected his health at the best of times, it seemed, so Danny could only imagine what it had been like whilst on the chase.

At one point, he too fell asleep despite the coffee he had consumed earlier for many of the same reasons. The constant waiting and stress of the past month had left him with uneasy sleep, filled with nightmares about never getting answers or finding his friend dead. He didn't know how he would have felt had he known Steve during his active duty days, never knowing when or if his friend was going to be coming back from a mission. Likely he would have slept even less then he had been.

As soon as they landed in California, Steve was even tenser than he had been. "Will you calm down? Gregorovitch is dead, you said your ID was good, and I haven't spotted anyone following us. Just relax already. We're almost home." McGarrett nodded absently at Danny's words, but his eyes continued to scan the terminal around them regardless.

They made through customs without a problem but even when they settled on the next plane the SEAL couldn't calm down. It was driving Danny nuts. He was excited to just get home, see his daughter, and tell her mission accomplished before proudly revealing his partner. And said partner had to go and ruin everything. "Seriously, McGarrett. You're acting like you're America's Most Wanted." It didn't help Danny's mood that Steve was still acting moody, and he had yet to really crack a smile. He was having a hard time figuring out exactly why Steve was still acting distant because it had seemed like they had turned a corner this morning in Moscow.

"The man four rows behind us and to the left came through security with us and has never been out of sight of us since Moscow."

"Gee, maybe that's because we went straight through security and to the gate. You're being paranoid. You could say the same thing about a dozen other people on this plane."

"I'm serious, something isn't right."

"And I'm serious, you've been on the run too long and are seeing bad guys behind every shadow. You're not Alexander Lynch anymore, and you're not fighting off terrorists. Take a few deep breaths. You're killing the mood."

Apparently it just wasn't his day to please his partner, because like before, Steve ignored him and turned to the window, exuding tension and a little anger. But this time, Danny fell asleep first and therefore was spared the pain of anymore awkward talk with the man who was supposed to be his best friend.

Things felt better when they reached Hawaii, though, and even McGarrett seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Danny tried calling Kono when he landed, to let them know that he'd actually managed to bring Steve all the way back to Hawaii, but his call when straight into voicemail. He tried Chin Ho but received no answer there as well. He even called Joe, but it just rang and rang and rang. He hated to jump on the McGarrett bandwagon, but either everything was ignoring him or something was wrong.

After calling Kono for the third time, Danny cursed quietly and slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Danny, what's wrong?"

Danny glanced up at his partner, as they were moving slowly towards the front of the plane. Even though he had slept basically all the way from Moscow, he was paler than before—if that was possible—except for the bright spots in both cheeks. He wanted to bring it up but knew that Steve wouldn't even respond to a request for medical treatment until he knew what was going on. So he just sighed and spilled what was worrying him. "No one is answering their phones."

Steve immediately straightened out, despite the pain he seemed to be in. "When was the last time you spoke to any of them?"

He wracked his brain for a moment. "Before we went to the airport in Moscow, I talked to Kono on the phone and everything was fine. I texted her when we landed in California, but I didn't hear back. I just assumed it was because they were busy with a case or something."

"Yeah, or someone," McGarrett responded darkly. "You're sticking with me, Danny. I don't want you out there on your own."

"Don't you think you're overreacting, just a little?" he argued back weakly. He was arguing just for the sake of doing so, because he too was growing uneasier by the minute. He knew that what he had said to McGarrett in California was true—Gregorovitch was dead and no one appeared to be looking for them—and yet he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder to the man his partner had pointed out earlier.

"You're staying with me and we're going to find them before you can go home. Just humour me, alright?" Danny nodded; not missing the way Steve's eyes were now making full sweeps of the airport as they finally stepped out of the jetway. His stance had retained the tense and rigid posture that Danny had first seen across the street in Moscow and his stride was long with purpose. Within moments they had reached the Camaro in the parking structure where it had been left for them.

Steve started to move towards the driver's side, but Danny moved in to stop him. "No, no, no. I did not just fly halfway across the world and back to fetch you home just for you to faint at the wheel and die in the streets of Hawaii. You and your stab would and your stitches can sit in the passenger side while the non-injured one of us takes the wheel. Got it?"

Steve stared at him—and then past him—for a moment and then quietly stepped aside. "Just get to the Palace as soon as you can. Even though it's late they might still be there if they have a case. We just need to find them."

"I'm sure they're fine, Steve. You got Gregorovitch. Nobody is coming after us." But once again, the words rang hollow because deep in his gut, Danny knew something wasn't right. Never once through this whole ordeal had Chin, Kono, or Joe not picked up when he had called, and they wouldn't ignore him for this long of time.

The tension was thick in the car as they drove towards their headquarters, and in the yellow wash of the streetlights, McGarrett looked even unhealthier than before. Danny rubbed a hand across his face, worry about everything swirling in his gut. Both of them were silent, lost in their own thoughts; that silence was interrupted though by the sudden ring of Danny's phone.

He looked down and saw Kono's name flash across the screen, along with a text message. "Oh, thank god." He quickly unlocked his phone, a sudden rush of adrenaline and pure relief making his fingers shake a little bit, and then handed the phone to his partner. Now he just felt stupid for letting McGarrett's paranoia bring him down. "What does it say?"

"It says 'We're at McGarrett's place—just wanted to check in on the boss ourselves before we headed home.'"

"That's it?" Danny asked, slightly annoyed that there was no mention of why everyone had ignored him; but nonetheless he turned around to go to Steve's place. "Nothing about where they've been all day?"

"That's all she wrote. Do you want me to ask?" The normalcy of Steve's reply caught him off guard and for a moment he forgot all that had happened.

"Uh, no. I'll just ask her when we get there." He paused, and then the stress ratcheted back up as a thought occurred to him. "You think this is a trap?"

"Probably. I guess there's only one way to know for certain. You haven't your retrieved weapon, so while normally I would say to go around back, I think you should stick with me just in case."

Danny nodded, and then both occupants of the car were then quiet for a moment, the sound of the car's engine the dominant sound. Finally Danny spoke as they sped closer to Steve's home. "Are you going to be okay with this? I mean, seeing everyone like this, right now. If it isn't a trap."

Steve didn't say anything for a moment, just watched as the Hawaiian scenery passed by. "I guess we'll see."

Danny didn't know how to respond to that and so he just drove a little bit faster, feeling an odd parallel to when this whole journey had started. When they finally pulled into the driveway, he looked at his partner for a moment; the man was drinking in the sight of his house like it was a ghost.

"You, uh, want to lead the way, Super SEAL?" Steve nodded vaguely, and they both exited the car at the same time. Danny followed closely in his partner's steps up to the door, both to make sure that he wasn't being an obvious target and that Steve wasn't going to faint. After a long moment's hesitation, Steve moved to open the door, but it opened in front of him.

"Hey Boss," Kono said, and Danny could see her leaning against the door. Her voice was tight but she didn't indicate anything was wrong. "Welcome home." The door opened wider, allowing them both to come in, but when Danny stepped forward something hard connected with the back of his head. He fell forward, and everything started to go dark. His vision was swimming in and out when he heard an unfamiliar voice—a Russian voice—start to speak. "Yes, welcome home, Commander McGarrett."

* * *

**A bit of a cliffhanger, but hopefully it's worth it! Please let me know what you think!**

**Charlotte**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N 1: First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the wonderful comments once again. You all rock. Second of all, I'm sorry for the wait on this chapter. I didn't have but about half an hour to write since the last time I posted, and so it took me a lot longer to get this written and edited a bit. That being said, the latter half of this was written very quickly today and I hope that it meets expectations. **

**A/N 2: Since you guys had to wait so long for this chapter, I split it up with the next one to give you another full chapter and then the epilogue. Hope that makes up for it! **

**Disclaimer: I have no rights to ****_Hawaii Five-0. _****I write this story only for my own enjoyment. **

* * *

Danny's head was pounding, an incessant rhythm that seemed to match the beating of his heart. His ears were ringing too, and in combination with the pain it was hard to hear more than partial sentences.

_"…Commander…don't stop fighting…will shoot…you'll regret…"_

He could hear other sounds, but he couldn't identify them, and he didn't have the energy to open his eyes. He swam in and out of consciousness and could feel his body being moved before he blacked out completely again.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he came to again, but it was enough that he felt a bit more in command of himself. He realized that he had been secured to a chair, his wrists tied together and then to his seat with what felt like rope. It didn't feel like anyone was watching him—he didn't have that tingly, sixth sense feeling at the moment—so he used to the moment to his advantage, and opened his eyes a tiny amount.

Through the small crack in his eyelids, Danny could see that he had been placed in a line with the two other members of Five-0, who were in the same predicament; although Danny felt a tad bit luckier considering they had duct tape over their mouths. As far as he could tell, Joe wasn't there. Both Kono and Chin looked relatively unharmed, though Chin had a black eye blossoming and Kono's knuckles were broken open. They had obviously put up a fight at some point, but something had made both of them back down. A few feet away, Steve sat facing them in a chair of his own. He was sporting a few new cuts and bruises on his face; so obviously Danny had missed something after the crack to his head. As Danny swept his eyes back in forth, Danny could make out five men in the room with them and his heart sank; their odds weren't good. In fact, everything about the situation was grim. All of them were bound and half were gagged, and while the rest of them might be in pretty good shape, he knew Steve wasn't operating at full capacity; his injuries would hamper him.

As Danny was making his sweep of the room, the man who must have been the real Anton Gregorovitch started speaking again. "You see, Commander, you're not as smart as you thought. You thought you had shot me back in Moscow, but, lucky for me, you missed. Not so lucky for my brother, Dmitri, though. We looked so alike most people thought we were twins, and we were that close as well. He helped me run the organization, unbeknownst to Interpol and was my right hand man, and you murdered him. You killed…my…little…brother!" The last four words were each accompanied with a punch to Steve's torso.

Danny internally winced for his partner, but used the fact that all attention seemed to be on Steve to start playing with his bonds. Almost immediately, though, someone stepped up behind him and yanked his head back. "This one is awake," the new man stated, and Danny added another Russian terrorist to his tally as Gregorovitch turned around.

"Ahhh, so he is. Welcome to the party, Detective. Should I catch you up?" The terrorist circled closer to him, giving Danny his first unimpeded view of his partner. Steve was flushed but pale, though if he was in pain Danny couldn't tell. All he could see was the taunt lines of stress etched into his face, along with seething anger in his eyes.

"Go to hell," Danny spat back, which earned him a stinging slap across the face

"Now, now, now, Detective. I didn't bring your daughter into this, seeing as she is spending the weekend on Maui with her brother and your ex-wife, but believe me, procuring her won't be a problem if you don't behave." The threat was enough to stop his heart and one look at Steve's face told him it did the same to the SEAL. Meekly, he nodded and looked away. "That's better. Now as I was saying, I've gathered you all here because of what Commander McGarrett took from me a few nights ago and what I'm going to take from him." Gregorovitch paced in between his prey, his eyes never really leaving Steve's form. "You see, as soon as I got word of what had happened to my brother, I knew you had to be involved Commander. Only you could simultaneously make that shot and be so stupid as to take me on. So I had one of my men track you and while you took your leisure time flying home, I left Moscow immediately to arrange this surprise visit. I was so disappointed to find out that your mentor had left the islands as soon as he discovered you were coming back, and I truly wish I knew why this Shelburne I heard him talking about was and why it was more important than you. But my curiosity does not extend past my desire to kill you. And, eh, what's another mystery in the world? And so I bided my time and…_persuaded_ your friends to join me in celebrating your return. And now that we're all here and ready to begin, let's have some fun! Because, you see, Commander you took something precious away form me. So I will take _everything_ precious from you, piece by piece, until you're broken, and only then will I kill you. We will begin."

Gregorovitch nodded to someone behind Danny, and the man from the airport—the man Steve was sure had been following them—stepped forward, a knife in his hands. He casually passed the weapon to his leader, who took it and resumed his pacing, turning it over and over in his hands. "Remember, this is all your fault." He then nodded again and another crony stepped forward, and put a gun to Chin's head.

Time seemed to stop, and for a moment it was like the four members of Five-0 were the only ones in the room: Danny saw Chin close his eyes, his face not betraying the fear that he must be feeling; Kono, on the other hand, had panic written all over her face and her muscles were taunt, ready to fight; and Steve was in full SEAL mode. The partners' eyes met and Steve deliberately pulled on his wrist restraints twice before looking away. The Jersey detective was confused for a moment until he figured out what his partner must have meant: Steve wouldn't act until the others could defend themselves.

And then like that, the moment was over. The gun's safety clicked off, and that ominous sound rang through McGarrett's living room. Gregorovitch raised his finger to give the signal when McGarrett's voice was the second sound that broke the silence. "That's right, can't even do it yourself."

The terrorist's head swung around to face his target, and he didn't give the signal to shoot the Hawaiian man. "What did you say?"

McGarrett gave a derisive snort. "You heard me. You can't even shoot the man yourself, have to let someone else do the dirty work for you."

"That is enough," Gregorovitch said calmly and started to turn back to his lackey with the gun.

"I mean, it figures that you wouldn't." That brought Gregorovitch's head swinging back around.

"Excuse me?" His tone was still curious, but there was an underlying tone of anger.

"Well you weren't even man enough to be the face of your own organization. You left that to little Dmitri, let him be the man in the open and be exposed while you stayed safe in the shadows."

"That's enough."

"Sure it's easy to make the call to bomb a school and do that when no one can see you. But I bet you let Dmitri do everything else—deal with associates, talk to investigators so that if the time came that revenge was exacted, he'd be the one to go down. Am I right?"

"Enough." The tone was sharper now, and Gregorovitch took one step closer to McGarrett. Four of the men that the Russian had brought with him were all facing their boss now, the fifth still standing with a gun by Chin's side, but his gaze was glued to the scene in front of him. That meant all eyes were on the captive that had suddenly gotten talkative, and Danny and Kono were using this distraction to their advantage. Both detectives were furiously working at loosening their bonds—Chin was doing his best not to move so as not to draw attention to any of them. Danny noted that his, though tied tightly enough to keep him there, were not done as thoroughly as they should have been; he could only assume that either someone had been sloppy or in the haste of tying up two hostages details had slipped. He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though because it meant that they were one step closer to getting out of this hell alive.

"You must not have loved him that much if your main concern was keeping yourself safe, not even enough to give him some sort of protection. If you'd cared at all you would have made sure that little baby Dmitri kept away from windows if you knew I was coming."

"Enough! Stop talking now or I will shoot the girl!"

"Will you? Because Dmitri isn't here to pull the trigger for you, take the blame for you, and I don't think you're man enough to do it on your own. I bet you were only upset when he died because it meant that you no longer had a conveniently placed fall guy."

Gregorovitch let out an enraged yell and after one more pointed look from McGarrett, he stepped forward and starting raining down angry blows to the SEAL's chest. Gregorovitch's men looked on in part fascination and part horror as their boss lost control. Danny internally cringed on his partner's behalf, and knew that Steve was just trying to hit at any weak spot the terrorist had; they both knew Gregorovitch would shoot Kono with no hesitation. So he started working even faster at loosening on his binds so Steve wouldn't run out of barbs. He could feel the burn against his wrists, but he could also feel the bond slipping bit by bit; he pushed past the pain, was almost there, when—

"_Enough!_" Gregorovitch stepped back, snapped, and immediately his men snapped back to attention—so Kono and Danny stilled instantly. Steve met Danny's eyes immediately and the latter shook his head quickly; he was so close to being free, but he wasn't there yet. Danny watched as Steve did the same with Kono and got the same response. As Gregorovitch leaned down to get the knife he had dropped in his fury, Steve looked at them and nodded almost imperceptibly that he understood.

"Yep, back away now, because Dmitri isn't there to be bossed into taking the blame for things."

"Stop talking, Commander." The angrier Gregorovitch got, the heavier his accent became. "I am not afraid of you. You are a nuisance to me, nothing more. You pose no threat to me, are nothing. I've made the world fear me, fear my name. You can do nothing to me."

"I don't know about that, Anton," Steve goaded. "I bet your brother thought that too until I blew his brains out." Gregorovitch let out another angry growl and took a step forward, and at that moment Danny managed to pull on the knots just enough that with a painful twist of his wrist they came off; he sent a small nod to Steve. Kono must have been close too because a moment later she did the same. Chin was still secured to his chair, but it was enough for Steve. "Yeah, he must have thought that you could scare me into submission like all the others. He probably thought that until my bullet painted the walls with his blood." Steve looked Danny dead in the eye one more time right before Gregorovitch's grip on the knife tightened and he took one more step forward; then it started.

As soon as the terrorist moved close enough, Steve brought both his legs up and kicked Gregorovitch's legs out from him, and then head-butted him as he fell, stunning him for a moment. The two men standing right next to Steve reached immediately for the guns, but Steve stood up as best he could and wacked one with the legs of the chair still attached to him; the man stumbled back and fell. He then brought broth feet up to kick the other man almost directly in the chest; this caused the man to fall backwards and smash his head on the edge of the coffee table, where he lay unmoving. The momentum from this caused Steve to fall back to the ground heavily and smash the wooden chair beneath him, freeing both his hands. The SEAL immediately grabbed one of the broken pieces of wood and whirled around to stab the first man in the chest.

As soon as Steve brought Gregorovitch down, Danny and Kono were up and fighting. Kono ripped the duct tape off her mouth, and then leaped forward and brought down the man closest to her with a sharp kick to the back of the leg; breaking his knee. He collapsed and was stopped from reaching his gun when she stomped on his hand before kicking him savagely in the head. At the same time as this, Danny had leapt out of the chair and tackled the man in front of him. They crashed to the floor and the blond man grabbed the Russian's gun before he could make a move for it. As he was removing the weapon, though, the man tried to shake Danny off and got in a good kick to Danny's midsection. He cried out in pain but still managed to bring down the butt of the gun hard enough to send him into unconsciousness.

With Kono and Danny occupied with two men, and Steve the other two and Gregorovitch, Chin had been left exposed with the last Russian; that didn't seem to be a problem for the Hawaiian man though. As soon as his cousin and Danny had started brawling, Chin had used the same trick as McGarrett and stood up as best he could before whacking the man next to him in the legs with the chair. He couldn't do much more than that with his hands still bound together, but that had given Kono enough time to bring down her assailant and come to his aid. Just as the Russian was standing up, Kono ran over to meet him with a gun to the face. Chin nodded at her gratefully, and she was just about to move to free him when Steve's chair shattered.

The sound of that was apparently enough to rouse Gregorovitch from his stupor, and he pulled himself off the ground immediately when he got one quick look at what had transpired. He had already started moving toward the door by the time Steve had stabbed his adversary, and Danny only caught sight of the backside of him as he slipped through the door. Steve immediately started to go after him and then stopped, flinging a look over his shoulder at his team. "We've got this, boss," Kono said, her gun still firmly trained on the only remaining capable and conscious Russian. "Go."

He apparently needed no more encouragement because he was out of the door so fast Danny almost missed it. Danny wanted to go and help him, but the mess in the house needed to be contained first, so he tamped down his concern and quickly moved to untie Chin while Kono maintained watch. As soon as his bonds were free, Chin gratefully rotated his hands and stripped the tape from his mouth. He leaned down and grabbed a gun from where it lay on the floor, discarded from someone during the fight, and smiled as he felt a weapon in his hand. He then immediately turned toward Danny. "He's going to need help—go. Make sure he didn't come all this way just to be killed in his own backyard. We're good here."

"Thanks, Chin." Danny rushed out into the cold night air after his partner, panting a little bit as his head throbbed from the sudden exertion. He looked around, not entirely sure where Steve and his nemesis were. The moon overhead wasn't spectacularly bright, and so Danny closed his eyes and listened for a moment. He heard the sound of the waves on the beach, the rustle of wind in the palm trees—nothing that sounded out of place in the Hawaiian night. He strained his ears and then he caught it. The sound of a faint yell came, obviously a ways down the beach. Danny turned and started sprinting in that direction, heart pounding.

Just when he thought his head couldn't take anymore, Danny finally caught sight of his partner and Gregorovitch. They were trading blows quickly, but Danny could tell it wasn't the same caliber of fight he had witnessed in Moscow; Gregorovitch, for all his evil ways, was not exactly a prizefighter. And while Danny could see the anger behind Steve's blows, he wasn't at full capacity and he was fading quickly. He whipped out his gun as he moved forward, trying to find an opening to shoot Gregorovitch without shooting Steve too; but the two men were moving too quickly and erratically for Danny to take a shot.

He watched as Gregorovitch stumbled and lost his footing on the uneven sand, giving Steve the opportunity to send a brutal uppercut to the terrorist's face. Gregorovitch flailed backwards and Steve pushed towards him, getting in one quick blow after another; but then Gregorovitch threw to the side, lunging for something in the sand. Steve's momentum carried him forward into the open air and he tumbled onto the beach as Gregorovitch rose, a gleaming knife in his hands. This meant, though, that the two men were apart enough for Danny to raise his gun quickly, aim, and fire a shot.

The bullet caught Gregorovitch in the shoulder. He cried out and fell back, clutching his shoulder as shiny black liquid seeped through his fingers. This gave the fading SEAL the opportunity he so desperately needed and he pulled himself up, stepped forward and caught Gregorovitch in a choke hold. "Give it up, Gregorovitch," McGarrett growled, his voice breathy. "It's over."

"Never," the Russian spat back as best he could. "I will never give up until you beg to die for all the pain I have caused you." He started to struggle wildly, and it was all Steve could do to hang on.

Danny moved forward, the gun in his hand steadily trained on Gregorovitch's forehead. "You're not getting away—I _will _shoot you first. Give it up." Gregorovitch gurgled a laugh, bucked his body wildly and threw Steve off; he leaned down to pick up the knife he had once more dropped and started to raise him arm to throw the weapon at Danny.

He never got the chance though. Steve drew on his last reservoir of energy and lunged forward, catching Gregorovitch around the midsection. They both went down; struggling, and Danny knew he couldn't get a clean shot. He stepped forward—to help, although he wasn't sure how—but Steve managed to get his hands around Gregorovitch's throat. Just as Danny moved forward once more, his partner cried out in pain and then there was an audible crack—then nothing.

Danny ran forward just as Steve pushed Gregorovitch away from where they both lay; the Russian man's head was at a horrible angle and his eyes were open but unseeing. Steve was in a prone position on the sand, breathing heavily, and he barely reacted at all as Danny crashed onto the beach next to him. "Steve? Are you okay?"

Steve nodded once and then shook his head, leaving Danny more confused then ever. "Steven, babe, talk to me. You okay?" He saw Steve swallow hard and then the moonlight opened through the trees just enough to see Steve pull Gregorovitch's knife out of his flank, in almost exactly the same spot as where he had been stabbed in Moscow. "Jesus, you're turning into a pin cushion. You need a hospital, now."

Steve nodded, and Danny knew he must be in pain—or delirious—to agree so easily. He started to sit up, but immediately fell back on shaking arms. "I think I might need some help, Danny."

Danny was already on top of it, maneuvering himself to be able to haul his partner into a standing position. It took a few tries, but finally Steve was standing, albeit wobbly, with Danny's arms keeping him propped up. "We'll take it slow, don't worry I've got you. You'll be okay, just focus on walking." He continued murmuring comforting words to his friend, trying to ignore the blood seeping into his own shirt and the way the taller man was breathing unsteadily.

Just as they were feet away from McGarrett's house, the owner collapsed, and it took all of Danny's strength to stop them both from face planting. "Shit," he whispered, noting that Steve was pale but sweaty, and completely and totally unconscious. "Chin!" He called out loudly, hoping the other man would come quickly.

Almost immediately Danny could see the Hawaiian man sprinting across the beach towards them, a gun ready for use in his hands. He pulled up short when he spotted them on the beach, and swiftly changed direction. "What happened?"

"He got stabbed. Again."

"Gregorovitch?"

"He's dead," and Danny cocked his head backwards to indicate where the body was. "Help me get him up. He needs to go to the hospital, like yesterday." Chin wasted no more time with questions and they both draped one of Steve's arms over their shoulders, pulled him up, and started dragging him indoors.

Kono gasped when she saw them, but Danny had to chuckle slightly at the sight in front of him. She had all five guys lined up on the floor in front of her, hogtied with a mix of rope, bungee cords and other various materials; they had obviously ransacked McGarrett's office for supplies. All five of them were unconscious, so Danny assumed the last one had received a whack over the head at some point while he was gone. Nevertheless, Kono's acquired gun was still in her hand, and she was keeping watch. The man that Steve had stabbed didn't look like he was going to make a move to run away any time soon, though. "What the hell happened?"

"The boss is severely down for the count," Chin answered grimly, helping Danny lay Steve down on his couch before stepping away to grab Steve's home phone to call an ambulance and backup. He moved to the kitchen and Danny could hear his calm and level tones; and though he would never admit it, it helped sooth his frazzled nerves just a bit.

He sat down next to Steve, and gently pushed back some sweat soaked hair from his forehead. "He's burning up," he murmured quietly, "and he's not breathing well." Danny lifted up the side of Steve's bloody t-shirt and he realized that his initial estimation of the wound wasn't entirely correct. It was near the wound from Moscow but higher up, and much too close to Steve's lung for Danny's peace of mind. To keep his mind occupied until the ambulance got here, he looked up to Kono. "Is it true what Gregorovitch said about Joe?"

She nodded a little absently, worry etched into her face. "After you called us to tell us that you were coming home, Joe got a call from someone but he didn't take it in front of us—Gregorovitch must have been listening in to get Shelburne's name. Anyway, he told us that he had something important to do and he had to go, but he trusted that you were in good hands, and that he wanted us to update him as often as possible. He left right after that."

Danny mirrored her absent nod. "When did they get you guys?"

"Pretty soon after Joe left. We were in the office and Chin tried to fight back—you saw his face—but he backed down as soon as they threatened me with a gun. There wasn't much opportunity to escape because they brought us straight here and we were tied up pretty tightly. They only let me up to open the door and I tried to fight back but they were pretty insistent with their guns."

He ran a hand over his face, his head pounding more and more as his exhaustion set in. He looked down at his partner again and tried not to focus on the raspy sounds he was making. He was about to ask Kono another question—something that he could never recall later—when all of a sudden he looked down and realized that his partner wasn't breathing.

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**I hope that was up to par and worth the wait! Please drop me a review and let me know what you think! :)**

**Charlotte **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N 1: First of all, I'd like to say that I'm sorry for the long wait again. I've been on vacation for the past week and my four year old cousin didn't leave me a whole lot of time to write or edit this. Also I would like to thank everyone for the brilliant reviews on the last chapter. You guys make me feel so warm and fuzzy. **

**A/N 2: Well, this is the last full chapter, and I hope it rounds out the story well. There will be an epilogue, but we're pretty much at the end of our journey. This makes me horribly sad because I've really enjoyed this story and the experience, so I'm going to try to post another ****_Five-0_**** story soon. **

**Disclaimer: I own no rights to ****_Hawaii Five-0_****. I tell this story for purely my own enjoyment.**

**A/N 3: Sorry for the multiple emails/bad link. For some reason it didn't work, so hopefully this time y'all can access it! **

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Danny ran a hand through his hair and shifted in the uncomfortable hospital chair. Kono sat to his left, and he thought about pulling his phone out to update Chin again; but he knew there was nothing new to say that he hadn't already told the other man in the last few hours.

By the time Danny had noticed that his partner's cessation of breath and started CPR, the paramedics were arriving at the house. Whatever Chin had said to dispatch on the phone had seemed to make them come faster than ever before, for which Danny was incredibly grateful. Within moments of him starting to frantically push air into McGarrett's stagnant lungs, the EMTs had pushed him aside and were starting ministrations of their own.

Before even moving him off the couch, the paramedics were cutting off Steve's shirt and placing the pads on his chest to shock his heart, and the sight of his partner's body surging off the sofa was a mental picture that would stay with Danny for a while. For some of the longest minutes of Danny's life, Steve continued to have no pulse, no oxygen moving through his blood; finally though, _finally_, there appeared a pulse on the portable defibrillator machine. As soon as that happened, one EMT was packing Steve into the ambulance and telling Danny which hospital to go to, and the other was getting details of what happened—and then both were gone, without giving Danny a chance to ride along.

The blond detective sagged against the couch, trying not to look at the splotches of McGarrett's blood. He tried to breathe, tried to calm himself but it wasn't working and he just wanted to drive as fast as humanly possible to the hospital to make sure the doctors were doing their jobs properly; but he knew he couldn't abandon Kono and Chin to the cleanup at the house because they cared just as much as he did.

Even so, he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit better when he heard Chin's sturdy footsteps approach and the other man say, "I'll stay here and sort out everything. Kono and you should go to the hospital, just keep me posted." Danny started to protest out of obligation more than anything else, but Chin just held up his hand. "You're not going to be of any use here anyway, not while he's there and you don't know. So you might as well go and be useless at the hospital rather than here. Besides, you really need to get your head checked out. You took a pretty good whack to the back of the head, and I want to make sure everything is okay."

Danny didn't even try to protest again, just nodded and looked at Kono. "Can you drive?"

"Of course. I wouldn't want you behind the wheel right now—we'll die for sure." He gave her a weary smile, but inwardly shuddered at the eerie reminder of what he had said to his partner only hours earlier. But he didn't say anything and pushed himself off of the sofa, trying to ignore the slight shakiness of his body as he did. Kono didn't, though, and reached out an arm to steady him. "Let's go."

Danny didn't remember much of the drive to the hospital. He was too busy obsessively replaying the events of the night in his mind; thinking over how he could have saved Steve from being stabbed again or how much sooner he could have noticed the distress the SEAL was in. He knew it wasn't going to change anything or keep his partner out of the morgue, but no matter what he tried that was the dark corner his mind came back to. When they finally arrived at the hospital, Danny was such an emotional mess that he knew he was barely holding it all together.

Kono steered him immediately toward the nurses' station, and quickly informed the woman in charge what was going on. "I'm Officer Kalakaua, and this is Detective Danny Williams. He got hit pretty hard in the head about two hours ago and he needs to be checked out."

The woman started to get up, but Danny stopped her. "First, I need to know about the condition of my partner, Commander Steve McGarrett. He came in not too long ago."

"I can only give out information to family or next of kin," she stated sternly.

"I'm his next of kin," Danny replied, trying to contain his impatience. Steve had asked him to be his next of kin a few dozen injuries ago when he had gotten sick of the hospital calling Mary every time he was hurt. "Just tell me that he's okay."

The nurse looked him over once before turning to her computer. "All I know is that he's in surgery right now. Now, you have a head injury and that means you need to come with me right now."

Almost immediately they wheeled him back to be poked, prodded, X-rayed, and scanned; Danny wanted to protest, to find out more about Steve but no one gave him the chance and he didn't have enough energy to fight. After all his tests, Kono eventually came back to see him in the hospital room he'd been temporarily assigned. "Any news?"

Kono shook her head. "They won't really tell me anything and so I don't know if he's out of surgery yet or not." She didn't add the other alternative—that Steve could be dead for all they knew—and Danny was immensely grateful for that. "Want me to go find a doctor? I can pester or charm someone until they tell me what I want to know."

Danny laughed a little, grateful for the joke. His body wasn't even sure what time zone it was in and he was so jetlagged that he almost wanted to cry; putting that on top of an already stressful month and the all-consuming stress from watching his partner essentially die right in front of him had brought him to the point where he was almost holding back tears. "Yeah, maybe see what you can do."

Kono had just headed to the door when it swung open from the other side and a doctor came into the room. "Hello Mr. Williams, I'm Doctor Richardson and I'm the doctor that's been assigned to your case. I've looked over all your scans and they all look good. I'm not seeing any bleeds or any signs of a fracture, so that's good, obviously. It appears you have a very mild concussion, but aside from a lingering headache, I'd say that everything is pretty okay."

Danny nodded, irritated at this man's chipper attitude. "And what can you tell me about my partner, Steve McGarrett? We," he motioned to Kono and himself, "have been trying to find out what's happened to him for ages now and I just want to make sure that my friend is still alive!" He could hear the way his voice got louder and louder and he didn't miss the concerned look that Kono shot him.

"It had already been noted in your file that you were waiting for news so I took the liberty of checking on the Commander before I came in here." Suddenly, Danny felt like a bit of an ass, but he was going to blame it on his mild concussion if anyone questioned him about it later. "His doctor will, of course, be in to talk to you more about his condition and the details of everything, but I do know that he made it through the surgery and they're moving him to the ICU now. I'll take you to the surgical waiting room and his doctor will meet you there. Like I said I don't have all the details, but at least you can rest a little bit easier with the knowledge that he made it through that."

Kono and Danny shared a look, and if she was anything like him, he knew what his coworker was thinking: Steve may have made it through the surgery, but nothing with him was ever easy. Just because he was okay now didn't mean that couldn't change at the drop of a hat. But Danny just nodded and thanked the doctor. "Can you lead us up there?" The man nodded and just like that, they were all off again.

Danny knew the way, actually. He probably knew the route better than some people that worked here. He'd been here way too many times, going to visit the very same man; this time was worse though. He'd dealt with Steve being gone for so long, he couldn't bear to lose the man who was like his brother just when he got him back. So he meekly followed the doctor, trying not to let his mind go to places he would rather not.

The doctor walked them right into the room, shook hands with both of them, and then left Kono and Danny on their own. Danny sat sullenly, while Kono pulled out her phone to send Chin a text message to update him what was going on. Her phone dinged in response, and she filled Danny in. "Chin's working on clearing the scene now, and he's giving his statement. He said that HPD will be by to get ours later."

Danny nodded, but didn't say anything. He was saved trying to think of a response because at that moment, the door opened. "Detective Williams and Officer Kalakaua, I presume?" At their affirmative he continued. "I'm Doctor Sterling, and I'm the surgeon who operated on Commander McGarrett when he came into the ER earlier. When Commander McGarrett arrived, he had no pulse but we were able to reestablish this fast enough that brain damage should not be a concern."

"That means his heart stopped twice. Why?" Kono's voice was a lot surer than Danny thought his would be.

"Well, based on the wound received recently, the past wounds I found, and from what I found out from the paramedics, my guess would be that after the blood loss and the buildup and immediate drop in adrenaline, his heart just bottomed out."

"Bottomed out?" Her tone was dubious.

"Yes. After receiving multiple wounds, one of which punctured his lung—I'll get to that in a moment—and then having all that adrenaline leave his system once the situation was secure, it was just the right combination to cause there to be not enough adrenaline left to keep his body going. Instead, it started to just shut down. With proper rest and recuperation over the next few days, though, I don't think that will continue to be an issue. It was an isolated circumstance. Now, moving on. The fresh knife wound did puncture his lung, as I said. It was low on his left side, but it wasn't deep enough to cause total cessation of breathing immediately; think of it as a slow leak in your tire instead of it blowing apart completely. We performed surgery that repaired the puncture, but we do have him on a ventilator now, and will keep him on one for the rest of tonight and into tomorrow, just to give him lung that extra help to heal as best as possible."

"So he's okay?" Relief was flooding through Danny's system, making him feel simultaneously very sleepy and very aware. "He'll be okay?"

Doctor Sterling paused, sending that relief plummeting. "While there were no complications with his surgery, there are two problems that are making recovery incredibly more difficult. Firstly, when we were repairing his lung, we found a small but incessant bleed from a nicked artery; this was most likely caused by the older knife wound. Although it wasn't big enough to pose a threat right away, it too is like the slow leaking tire. Since the wound was incurred, the Commander has been bleeding internally and losing blood. This combined with the wound tonight means that the amount of blood in his body is low—much lower than I'm comfortable with. We are giving him transfusions, but it means that there is one more thing he has to bounce back from. The more worrying of the problems, though, is the other knife wound. The wound on his arm—what appears to be a bullet wound—is healing very well. The other that I encountered is another story, however. The wound has become seriously infected and as a result of this, the Commander is running a very high fever. We have him on very high doses of antibiotics, but controlling the infection will be difficult if we can't get his fever down. I'm hopeful that he'll make a full recovery, but just be forewarned that things may take a turn for the worse. If there's anyone else you think should be here, I'd make arrangements just in case. Now, I can take you to his room if you'd like."

Danny was dazed and as they walked the familiar steps towards the ICU, he reached out to Kono's hand in support. She grabbed hold and squeezed tightly, neither of them speaking because there was really nothing to say.

When they finally got to Steve's room, Danny heard Kono gasp quietly and he understood why. Through the window, Danny could see the paleness of Steve's skin warring with the high flush in his cheeks; he was shirtless and that left all bandages, complete with bloody splotches, visible to everyone. He was hooked up to all sorts of machines, but it was the ventilator that really scared the Jersey man. It was too much to have the machines making all the activity while the normally lively man was suddenly so still.

Finally, Danny worked up enough courage to enter the room, and he sat down in the hard plastic chair next to Steve's bed. He grabbed his partner's hand, and told him sternly, "You had best get better soon, or else I'm going to kill you myself." As Kono updated Chin once more, he just sat and hoped for the best. They sat and waited for two hours and he thought about updating Chin again, but there was nothing new to tell him. Finally, HPD came to take their statements and then Danny made Kono go home and get some rest.

And then he waited alone.

He waited while the doctor assured him again that Steve would be fine, and he waited by Steve's bedside as he had proved to be difficult and got worse before he got better. He waited for his partner's fever to break and for him to have a lucid conversation.

He waited three days.

Finally, Steve's baby blues opened and actually recognized Danny for the first time in days. He furrowed his brow, thinking; Danny knew he was probably trying to figure out what had happened. Finally, he looked at Danny worriedly, and then asked, "Is everyone okay?"

Danny sighed, knowing that that would be the first question out of Steve's mouth. "Everyone's fine. Everyone but you. Well, and the bad guys. Gregorovitch is dead as a doornail and his minions are in jail. So they're not great, but all of us are good."

Steve motioned vaguely at the back of his head. "You got hit, though." His voice was raspy, and Danny knew all the screaming he had done while hallucinating probably didn't help.

"Mild concussion. The pain went away after a few days."

"A few days?" The expression of confusion was back again. "How long have I been out? Where am I exactly?"

That got Danny riled up, and everything that he had been dying to say in the last few days, in the last month, came pouring out. "Out? _Out?_ Un-fricking-believable. You, my friend, are in a hospital because you were more than just _out_. You have been out-of-your-mind-hallucinating for three days _Three fucking days_. Because you thought that you would be fine stitching yourself up. And taking on a terrorist. You thought everything would be fine because everything has to be a fight with you. You got stabbed twice, once in a fight to the death, _and _punctured your lung _and _had internal bleeding but you just never stop. You got an infection, one so bad that for the last three days I had to sit here and deal with a Steve that wasn't coherent enough to even know what year it was. You were seeing things that scared the shit out of you, things only you could see; and you had no idea who I even was. I had to listen to you ask for your father and I felt like shit because there was nothing I could do to help you. You had such a high fever at one point the doctor asked me if there was anyone I should call because he didn't think you would be coming out of this hospital in anything but a body bag! So thanks for that really, because it was a wonderful ending to the most shitty month."

"Danny—"

"No, you don't get to speak. You've lost that right. You lost that right when you decided to up and leave without even saying goodbye because you thought you could handle everything on your own. Which maybe you could because frankly I saw you do things that I thought were only possible in movies, but that doesn't mean it was okay. And it didn't even do any good because we came back to the same situation that you were trying to avoid, but that's beside the point."

"Danny—"

"No. You _left_, Steven! You left all of us and I don't know if thinking something had happened and you were missing, or finding out you had made yourself disappear was worse, but they both sucked. Big time. We spent three days trying to find any sign of you, which you made damn near impossible, thanks to your new identity, before realizing it was pretty much hopeless. So then we piggybacked Interpol's investigation into Gregorovitch just to find anything, and that took a month! A month, Steven! Meanwhile, I had to go on like everything was normal and try to tell my daughter that her Uncle Steve was going to come back—something that I didn't know myself! I didn't know if I'd get to see my best friend again or if I was going to spend the rest of my life wondering what had happened to you. It was like Matt all over again but whereas I'm pretty sure he won't be able to hide forever, I would have gotten no closure from you."

"I know—"

"You know? You know _what_? You know nothing! You don't know what it was like for me. You don't know what it's like to be on the waiting end. You may have been on your own for this and away from home on every other mission, but you've never been on this side of things! That's its own brand of torture! And even worse, when I did see you finally, I didn't get so much as a 'Hey man, I'm really glad to see you and I'm sorry I was such a prick for leaving'—no, I got stony silence and an unhappy attitude. Like I had done something wrong by coming to take you back!"

"I'm sorry—"

"Oh, now he says it! Well you should be sorry! You should be so sorry that you should be doing whatever Kono, Chin, Gracie, or I want for the next year! You should be sorry because you made my life a living hell for the last month in every single way! Not only that, but we come home and the nightmare doesn't end, which isn't technically you're fault but it's still your damn fault! And on top of all that, I've had to try to fend off the governor about your mysterious absence—_why are you smiling? Did I say something funny?!_ So help me God, Steven McGarrett, I'm not kidding around here so stop smiling!"

Danny knew his face was red and he could have sworn it went three shades darker when Steve chucked just a tiny bit. "I'm sorry, man, I just…it's really nice to hear you rant."

That stumped him and, surprisingly, left him almost speechless. "What?"

Steve rubbed a hand over his face, expertly avoiding the nasal cannula, which drew Danny's attention to his still sickly pallor and tired eyes; immediately he felt a little guilty for yelling. But only a little. "I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to hear you rant at me ever again. Or surf with Kono, or have beers with Chin, or watch Gracie in her school plays. I left that day and made the decision to not ever come back to keep you guys safe. When you showed up, it was so surreal and in between wondering how you'd found me—which someday you'll have to more thoroughly explain—I kept thinking that I had to be dreaming. Even when I agreed to go back with you, I kept thinking that I was going to wake up at some point, so I shouldn't get too attached because it couldn't be real. I just…I had shifted my focus to not be at home in Hawaii so that each day wouldn't be so hard when I wasn't there. I had pretty much guaranteed myself no more Danny-rants ever again, and even when you showed up I couldn't believe it, but…it's just nice to have you yell at me again."

"Oh." Danny could see in that moment how difficult it must have been for Steve more clearly than he had before. To just leave everything behind for what would have been forever without looking back would have been awful. At least he had had Chin and Kono to support him. But… "That doesn't let you off the hook."

"I know, Danny, and I'm sorry. I honestly wanted to leave you a message or something, but I didn't know what to say, so I just left. I thought eventually you just move on and stop looking for answers." He must have seen something on Danny's face because he added quickly, "Stupid, I know."

"Yeah. You can't put us through that again, Steve. You can't just up and leave, flee to this bolt hole of yours if something ever happens. We can't take it again. We held together by the skin of our teeth. I wasn't exactly pleasant to be around."

"I'm sure. You're not always pleasant at the best of times."

"Hey, no wisecracks, McGarrett." Their banter was falling back into place and Danny couldn't help but smile. It made him feel like things were finally shifting back where they belonged. "Do you promise that your bolt hole is out of commission? You won't leave like that again?"

Steve paused, and coughed lightly. Danny leaned forward and gave him the glass of water that had been sitting by his beside, and the SEAL sipped gratefully. Finally he leaned back against the pillows and spoke. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future, Danny. I can't promise that someone so bad is never going to come along that I won't want to leave, but like I told you in Moscow, I don't think I could deal with not knowing if you guys were safe. So I'll do my best, okay?"

Danny nodded, knowing it was the best he was going to get right now. "Okay. I'm going to get the doctors, if they haven't already drawn up a plan to kick me out after all that yelling, and call the others to check in. You'll be okay?" He really wanted to know that Steve would still be there when he got back, not pulling some ninja tricks to escape and disappear again. But he kept his question neutral so not as to offend.

Steve, as usual though, read his mind. "I'll be right here, Danny, I promise.

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**A bit of a fluffy end, but I figured it was needed. Hope you all enjoyed it and the epilogue will be up soon! **

**Charlotte **


	7. Epilogue

**A/N 1: Well, here we are at the end. It's been the most wonderful journey with all of you, and I'm so grateful for all your kind comments and the support. You'll definitely be seeing me back in the fandom soon and if any you have thoughts/comments on what you'd like to have me write, just drop me a note! **

**A/N 2: It's kinda short but I think it finishes up the story well. Hopefully you all agree. :) **

**Disclaimer: I have no rights to ****_Hawaii Five-0. _****This story is done purely for my own enjoyment. **

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As Steve exited the water and walked toward them, Danny smiled at his daughter's smile. It had been three months since they had returned from Russia and Grace wanted to spend all of her free time with her favourite uncle—probably to make sure he was still here, Danny reckoned. Today she had managed to wrangle everyone into surfing, Kono and Chin included.

Steve lay down on the beach next to Grace with a smile. "How ya doing, Gracie?"

"Good! I'm keeping Danno company for a bit 'cause he said it's too soon after lunch to go into the water."

Steve's piercing blue eyes met Danny's with a smile. "Oh really? I thought the 20-minute rule was only for old ladies."

"Shut it, Steven. I'm just making sure that I don't attempt to go in the water before my body is ready."

Both his partner and his daughter started laughing, but he was okay with that. "Hey Uncle Steve," Grace said once they had calmed down. "What are those scars from?" She was pointing to the two slightly jagged areas of raised skin on his side.

The first was, of course, courtesy of a dirty Interpol agent in Moscow. It was smaller but still large enough to be a reminder of what had happened when Steve had left. The second, much larger and higher up, was from his final fight with Gregorovitch and was reminder for something else.

Almost a week after returning to Hawaii, Steve was finally released from the hospital. Danny could tell he was still worn down and tired, but he also knew the other man just wanted to get home, get back into the life he had thought he was giving up for sure. Chin and Kono had made sure that Steve's house was completely cleaned up, and all traces of that night had been removed. When the team gathered at the home for a barbeque a short time later, Kono had come up and punched Steve in the arm. "That was for leaving. Don't do it again, okay?" Then she had hugged him. "Welcome home for real, brah."

Chin had given him a hug too, and said, "What Kono said. It's good to have you back."

Halfway through dinner, there was a knock on the door that opened to reveal a very contrite Joe White on the doorstep. He apologized profusely for leaving before knowing everything was okay, and then had pulled Steve aside; he put his hands on Steve's shoulder, and looked him in the eye. Steve just nodded in response, and it had pissed Danny off that he had no clue what had just happened between them. Nevertheless, after that the five of them had pizza and beers and hung out the rest of the night, talking about everything and nothing; and starting the long path to healing.

It had taken a bit more with the governor, though. Steve had talked to him alone, and when he had come out both Steve and Denning looked pissed. When Danny had asked, Steve had told him that he had simply informed the governor he had been called up for a classified op requiring his skill set, building on the lie by saying that he had told Danny and the team that Mary was sick. Denning hadn't believed him but it was the story Steve was sticking to. "I called in a favour and had one of my old CIA buddies call in and confirm everything, so Denning had no choice but to accept it. He wasn't happy about it though."

"And why where you so angry?" Danny had asked.

Steve had just pressed his lips together, his face blank, and shook his head. "Something he said, about my loyalty." Danny bristled in anger himself, thinking that Denning wouldn't be questioning Steve's loyalty if he knew the whole story; but he also knew that the governor could never know about the unsanctioned hit. The man was too straight-laced to let Steve get away with it.

But get away with it he did, it seemed. When HPD reported the event at McGarrett's house, various national and international agencies suddenly started sending officers to Hawaii to get the full story on how Anton Gregorovitch had met his end. No one questioned the fact that the terrorist came to Hawaii to get revenge, and though a few agents subtly pressed McGarrett for answers about the shooting in Moscow, it seemed there was not any evidence other than vague suspicions against the SEAL. After all the questions had been answered, debriefings had, and forms filled out, the various agencies started to pack up and everyone at Five-0 started to breathe a little easier.

After that Five-0 started to slide back into place with their fearless leader back at the helm. It felt good to Danny, felt right to have things back the way they were. Steve had chosen to share only the basics of his month away with Kono and Chin, and had kept Danny in the dark about most details, which made it difficult when one of them would inadvertently say something that brought storm clouds to Steve's eyes; but everyone, including Steve, just pushed past because everyone wanted to move on.

So when Grace asked her question, Danny wasn't sure how Steve would respond. It brought everything that had happened back to the forefront. "Well, Grace, those are scars I've gotten fighting bad guys."

"Oh. You were hurt?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, a little."

"Was that from when you left?" Steve had had to grovel and buy Grace shaved ice every day for a week before she had forgiven him. She knew only that Steve had left to stop a bad guy, and knew nothing of that night when they got home; but even with that good reason, it still took her a very long time to even come close to forgiving her favourite uncle. Because of her anger, Danny knew Steve would rather avoid talking the whole fiasco then get her mad again; so he cringed at his daughter's question.

But Steve surprised him by going ahead without flinching. "Yes, they were from when I left."

"But you're okay now?"

Steve nodded, looking at Kono and Chin surfing easily on the waves, at Danny, and finally at Grace herself. "Yep, I'm fine. I'm great actually. Because your dad brought me back. Beause I'm home."

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**Well that's it. A happy ending, but never fear: as long as I'm around, there will always be more Steve-whump/angst to be had. Thank you again for all the kind words and I hope you enjoyed not only this chapter but the story!**

**Charlotte **


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